Traffic controllers cancelled several flights to and from Luxembourg’s Findel airport on Wednesday, as a computer breakdown in Switzerland forced the Alpine nation to close its airspace for several hours.
A defective hardware part at Skyguide air traffic control in Geneva paralysed both major airports in Switzerland during the morning rush, though operations resumed at 08:30h, according to press reports and official information.
“There’s people sitting around everywhere,” a person working at the Geneva airport told the Luxembourg Times. “And nobody knows what to do, because it’s not clear how long the defect will last,” she said in a series of text messages.
One Swiss flight meant to depart to Zurich at 10:45h was delayed, according to the Luxembourg airport website, whereas a Luxair flight to Geneva at 06:35h was cancelled. Arrivals this morning had also been cancelled or delayed, with flight later on Wednesday appearing as ‘scheduled’.
Some international flights to Switzerland have been diverted to Milan airport in Italy, according to Swiss press reports. Other flights had been diverted to Frankfurt and Germany, according to the Zurich airport website.
The hardware malfunction adds to travel chaos in Europe, with hundreds of flights being cancelled over the last few weeks in Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands and elsewhere, partly due to understaffing and very high travel volumes after the pandemic.
(Additional reporting by Andréa Oldereide)
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