Passengers travelling to and from Italy faced disruption on Friday (16 October) following a failure in the country’s air traffic control system.
Air traffic control authority ENAV said it detected “anomalies” in its transmission network overnight and temporarily reduced capacity in Italian airspace by up to 50 per cent from 6am on Friday morning while it conducted “technical checks”.
ENAV ruled out a cyberattack and said flight operations remained safe. However, the restrictions have led to delays and cancellations at major airports across the country.
The authority switched to a secondary satellite network, enabling capacity to increase steadily following the morning disruption.
“Although the use of this backup system ensures continuity of air traffic control services and the highest safety standards, it does not allow ENAV to manage 100 per cent of air traffic, making a temporary reduction in operational capacity necessary,” ENAV said in a statement on Friday afternoon.
Capacity had been restored to 75 per cent in the afternoon before reaching full operational capacity at the time of publication.
In its latest update, ENAV said: “Following technical interventions carried out in close coordination with suppliers, full functionality of the primary data transmission network has been restored, enabling air traffic management capacity to return to 100 per cent.
“The capacity restrictions introduced earlier this morning have therefore been lifted, and air traffic is gradually returning to normal across Italy.”
The technical failure coincided with a 24-hour nationwide strike by EasyJet employees in Italy on Friday, compounding the disruption. Milan Malpensa, Milan Linate and Rome Fiumicino airports were expected to be among those most affected by the industrial action.
Under Italian law, protected travel periods remain in place during strikes, guaranteeing flights scheduled between 7am and 10am and between 6pm and 9pm.