I heard that further air-traffic control disruptions such as we saw on Friday cannot be guaranteed because of software issues. Why not cancel all air travel in Britain for a day to upgrade the whole system? That way installations can be made and tested without disturbance to travellers and airports — Sylvia Marshall, West Sussex
A Timely question. The “computer glitch” on Friday afternoon that led to 150-plus cancellations to and from the London airports and disrupted the plans of around 200,000 passengers was apparently caused by a hitherto unknown bug in some fairly old software. Richard Deakin, chief executive of the air-traffic control firm, Nats, said: “This issue will not cause further disruption over the holiday season.” But no one can guarantee there will be no further unforeseen problems with the blend of ancient and modern software used at the London Area Control Centre at Swanwick in Hampshire.
Upgrading the complex air-traffic control system with new software is tricky, because the network is always live. Your proposal could solve this problem. Christmas Day would be the obvious choice because air activity falls to about a quarter of a normal day, But I can’t ever see it happening: the airlines would not accept a shutdown. Cancelling flights to and from the UK for 24 hours, even on December 25, would cost them millions in lost earnings.
Furthermore, many of the two million flights that Nats handles every year are flying straight over the UK, because we stand between much of continental Europe and North America. In theory, airlines such as Air France, KLM and Lufthansa could divert transatlantic flights to avoid British airspace, but again it would prove unacceptably expensive.
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