UK air traffic curbs: Air India says no significant impact on its flights, actively monitoring situation

New Delhi, August 28

Air India on Monday said there is no significant impact on its flights to and from the UK, where a technical issue has impacted air traffic services, and that the airline is actively monitoring the situation.

NATS, which provides air traffic control services in the UK, has put in place certain traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety.

In an update at 1515 hours GMT, NATS said it has identified and remedied the technical issue affecting its flight planning system.

Air India and Vistara, both part of the Tata Group, are the only Indian carriers operating flights to the UK.

While Air India flies to London, Gatwick and Birmingham, Vistara operates services to London.

“There is no significant impact on our flights to and from the UK, as of now. We are actively monitoring the situation,” an Air India spokesperson said.

Air India operates 98 weekly flights between India and the UK. On August 28, the airline is scheduled to operate 14 flights between India and the UK.

Vistara operates two flights between the two countries daily.

There was no comment from Vistara.

“We have identified and remedied the technical issue affecting our flight planning system this morning. We are now working closely with airlines and airports to manage the flights affected as efficiently as possible. Our engineers will be carefully monitoring the system’s performance as we return to normal operations.

“The flight planning issue affected the system’s ability to automatically process flight plans, meaning that flight plans had to be processed manually which cannot be done at the same volume, hence the requirement for traffic flow restrictions…,” NATS said in its update at 1515 hours GMT.