London-Gatwick Airport Caps Flights Due to Air Traffic Controller Shortage

The administration of the London-Gatwick airport, in conjunction with NATS, the British air navigation service provider, decided to establish a maximum limit of 800 flights per day for a week, from Monday 25th September to Sunday 1st October.

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This measure, they explained, is taken in response to challenges in managing the staff of NATS, affected by sick leaves and unfilled vacancies. With this, they aim to at least prevent last-minute cancellations and flight delays.

«This has been a difficult decision but the action we have taken today means our airlines can fly reliable flight programmes, which gives passengers more certainty that they will not face last minute cancellations,» emphasized Stewart Wingate, CEO of London-Gatwick.

«We are working closely with NATS to build resilience in the control tower, and this decision means we can prevent as much disruptions as possible,» he added.

The limitation will affect around 5% of the flights scheduled until Sunday 1st October, approximately 164 in total.

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«Our operational resilience in the tower will improve as our staff return to work and we move out of the summer schedule, which is particularly busy at Gatwick,» NATS stated, detailing that 30% of the tower controllers at that airport are on medical leave.

«We continue to train additional air traffic controllers and expect another group to qualify to work in the tower over coming months, ready for next summer. Even an experienced air traffic controller takes at least 9 months to qualify at Gatwick and very few are able to do so, as Gatwick is such a busy and complex air traffic environment,» they concluded.

In 2022, London-Gatwick airport recorded 214,806 aircraft movements that transported 32.8 million passengers. EasyJet is the most significant airline, holding almost 50% of the market.