THOUSANDS of passengers are facing long delays at Stansted tonight after problems with equipment at the UK's main air traffic control centre.
Russell Claydon
THOUSANDS of passengers are facing long delays at Stansted tonight after problems with equipment at the UK's main air traffic control centre.
Departures from the Essex airport are all being delayed by more than an hour following a fault at Swanwick Air Traffic Control Centre in Hampshire.
Air controllers at all the London area airports are currently operating on manual systems while engineers work to repair the fault, which occurred at around 4pm.
A spokeswoman for Stansted said at 6.30pm that the computer problems were not affecting arrivals at the airport but were causing some disruption to departures.
She said delays were running at more than one hour and advised passengers travelling to the airport tonight to check with their airline before departing.
NATS, who run the centre at Swanwick, released a statement saying an intensive investigation was under way and they would restore the system “as soon as possible”.
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