Passengers flying to and from London Gatwick could face disruption this week after the airport said it would be limiting the number of journeys due to staff sickness and numbers in air traffic control.
A daily 800-flight limit, affecting both departures and arrivals, has been imposed from Monday and will run until Sunday.
London Gatwick’s chief executive Stewart Wingate described the move as “a difficult decision”, but said it was needed to create “reliable flight programmes” amid ongoing work with Nats (National Air Traffic Services) to “build resilience in the control tower”.
The cap has been imposed as 30 per cent of Nats tower staff are unavailable for a variety of medical reasons, including Covid.
It means there will be about 29 fewer flights on Wednesday, 40 fewer on Thursday, 65 fewer on Friday and 30 fewer on Sunday.
The daily cap is to prevent last-minute cancellations and delays for passengers, who are being told to check with their airlines about their flights.
Mr Wingate said: “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.
“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.
“London Gatwick would like to apologise to any passengers who have been impacted by these restrictions.”
Nats apologised to passengers in a statement, but said that a variety of medical reasons means “we cannot manage the number of flights that were originally planned for this week”.
It said: “We have worked very closely with Gatwick Airport throughout. Given the levels of sickness we have experienced over the last few weeks we believe it is the responsible thing to do to limit the number of flights this week in order to reduce the risk of daily disruption to passengers using the airport.”
Nats added: “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.
“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 nine months to qualify at Gatwick and very few are able to do so, as Gatwick is such a busy and complex air traffic environment.”
