Errors in the system used by Swiss air traffic control have halted air traffic in the country several times. According to the Helvetica union, employees no longer trust the system.
On June 15, 2022, a technical malfunction occurred at Skyguide, an air traffic control center in Switzerland, in the early morning hours. This had serious consequences: for safety reasons, Swiss airspace had to be closed to air traffic. As a result, no flights took place over Switzerland for several hours. At Zurich and Geneva airports, this meant that planes would not be able to take off or land until 9:00 am. All flights to Swiss airports are suspended until further notice. Long-haul flights that were scheduled to land in the morning were diverted.
Following the major outage, the company conducted further research on its technical infrastructure, IT operational processes and employee competencies. Based on the results, Skyguide introduced additional measures, which were also implemented several times. However, air traffic control personnel are not yet convinced. Between the beginning of 2023 and February 2024, three more technical failures occurred. Once again, air traffic stopped at Zurich Airport. The duration of the outages ranged from ten minutes to approximately two hours. Skyguide indicates that the problems are caused by the switch from old systems to a new digital system. Since part of the thirty-year-old IT infrastructure has not yet been replaced, there is the potential for further disruption.
Work crew
On the other hand, employees are not looking forward to new air traffic disruptions. The Swiss air traffic controllers union, Helvetica, is said to have recently written a letter to Skyguide CEO Alex Bristol. “Employees have lost confidence in the systems,” the union reportedly said. “Our main goal is for the planes to fly at a sufficient distance from each other. At the same time, we are very afraid that the system will fail. We can no longer bear this burden.” After the latest outage two weeks ago, the authorities formed a working group to discuss the situation on a weekly basis. Airspace supervision has been significantly increased. According to Skyguide, safety has never been at risk.
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