UK Airport Limits Flights Over Air Traffic Controller Sick Wave

London's Gatwick Airport is limiting the number of flights that can arrive and depart because too many of its air traffic controllers are out sick.

The airport, the second-busiest in London, says it will handle a maximum of 800 flights per day through at least Sunday, October 1.

Just under a third of Gatwick's control tower staff were out sick, the airport explained, for "a variety of reasons," including Covid.

"This has been a difficult decision but the action we have taken today means our airlines can fly reliable flight programs, which gives passengers more certainty that they will not face last minute cancellations," Stewart Wingate, CEO of London Gatwick, said in a press release.

Some flights from the United States to London could be affected. Currently, British Airways, Delta, JetBlue, and Norse Atlantic fly in and out of Gatwick from New York's JFK. Norse also operates services from Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, and Washington-Dulles. JetBlue offers services to and from Boston, along with Norse.

European budget airline EasyJet operates around half of Gatwick's flights, so its customers were likely to be worst affected.

The airport said it hoped the cap would reduce the number of further cancellations or delays.

NATS, which operates air traffic control in the UK, said in a statement that limiting flights at Gatwick was the "responsible thing to do."

"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," the statement said.

"Even an experienced air traffic controller takes at least 9 months to qualify at Gatwick and very few are able to do so, as Gatwick is such a busy and complex air traffic environment."

London Gatwick, or LGW, is the UK's second-busiest airport after Heathrow, handling 32.8 million passengers in 2022. It is Europe's busiest single-runway airport.