Lack of air traffic staff blamed for flight delays
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Your support makes all the difference.More than 5,000 travellers had their flights delayed when the organisation that runs air traffic control shut eight of its 24 sectors, largely because of staff shortages.
The budget airline Ryanair claimed last night that 37 of its flights in and out of Britain on Thursday were late by "30 minutes or more" because of the closure. The company said it had to bring in a reserve aircraft to ease the delays.
The airline said it was told by National Air Traffic Services (Nats) that staff shortages were to blame. A Nats spokesman said seven air traffic controllers had been off sick. There were normally 70 air traffic controllers on duty, it said.
In July, Eurocontrol, which manages European air space, said Britain had the worst flight delays in Europe. It said staff shortages were responsible for 30 per cent of the delays.
Ryanair is awaiting a response from the Secretary of State for Transport, Alastair Darling, about a meeting it had proposed with him in early October to discuss the performance of Nats.
Although 30-minute delays did not seem serious, a Ryanair spokesman said, there was a "knock-on effect". the spokesman said: "The problems arise when you are 30 minutes late and have to turn around a plane in 25 minutes as well." For this reason the delays had hit Ryanair hard but would also have affected other airlines.
The airline said Nats should compensate passengers who had suffered from the delays. A spokesman said the company did not understand how the UK civil aviation authority could propose that Nats be allowed to increase its charges.
A spokesman for Nats said staff sickness on Thursday had been about two and a half times above the normal level. He said 16 of a proposed 18 sectors had opened."[Nats] regrets the delays and disruption caused," the spokesman said.
A Department of Transport spokesman said Ryanair's request for a meeting with Mr Darling would be investigated.
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