A major disruption in the Dutch air traffic control system caused a disruption of air traffic for approximately 2.5 hours in the Netherlands. The suspension started around 11pm and affected all Dutch airports, NOS says.
According to Luchtverkeersleiding Nederland (LVNL), the organization responsible for traffic management, some flights already approaching Dutch airports were able to land after 11pm thanks to a backup system. The situation normalized around 1.30am.
During the blackout, many arriving flights were diverted to airports outside the Netherlands. For example, a TUI flight from Tenerife was diverted to Brussels and a Transavia flight from Malaga landed at Oostende-Bruges airport, NOS says. Planes transiting over the Netherlands were also affected by the disruption, but it is not yet known to what extent. The high-altitude aircraft were operated by the Eurocontrol system.
Despite the disruption, the impact was limited thanks to the time it occurred: only a few planes were scheduled after 11pm from Schiphol, but some were canceled and others were delayed.
The cause of the outage is still unknown. Already the previous day numerous flights at Schiphol had been canceled due to bad weather and ongoing works which limited the number of runways available.
Tags: Blackout Schiphol yesterday evening hours stop air traffic Netherlands
