German airline Lufthansa were forced to cancel a host of flights this morning after problems with air traffic control. According to German news site The Local, around 4500 passengers are affected. 46 flights have been cancelled so far, after Lufthansa initially estimated they would be cancelling 22. The issue is affecting Frankfurt am Main, Cologne/Bonn, Stuttgart and Dusseldorf airports.
Passengers flying in to or out of these airports today have been advised to check the status of their flight on the Lufthansa website.
Issues have occurred after a software glitch was detected, and has led to issues in Germany since Wednesday.
Germany’s air traffic control agency, DFS, noted the problem from their centre in Langen.
DFS confirmed airline safety is not affected by the problem – the software in question provides air traffic controllers with ‘control strips’ of data about the progress of a flight.
This system has not been functioning properly, so DFS decided to reduce the volume of traffic in the airspace to allow them to monitor flights more closely.
The issue is hoped to be resolved later this week, when technicians will install alternative software.
Lufthansa are yet to update passengers on Twitter about the issues, but they do offer a flight status tracker on their website.
Frankfurt Airport suffered problems over the weekend after having to cancel flights following a drone sighting.
Air traffic was halted for 30 minutes on Friday evening, but was quickly dealt with before it became an ongoing issue.
While they did update their passengers via Twitter regarding the drone, the airport is yet to comment on the air traffic control software glitch.
However, passengers have begun sharing their problems on Twitter, with one traveller writing: “My departure is delayed, still on the ground. Software issues @lufthansa”.
Not everyone was displeased by the delay, with one Twitter user writing: “Well done @lufthansa keeping your passengers safe”.
