The saga continues...

Swiss air traffic chaos delays thousands

June 30, 1999 Web posted at: 11:32 a.m. EDT (1532 GMT)

ZURICH (Reuters) -- Tens of thousands of air travelers were hit by hours-long delays in Zurich Wednesday while air traffic control technicians tried to fix a computer glitch before the summer holiday rush.

"Today the average delay is two hours. It is another bad day," said a spokesman for Zurich's Kloten airport used by some 50,000 passengers daily. "Of course there is a chain-reaction effect to other airports," he added.

The Swiss air traffic chaos started Tuesday morning after the national air control service, Swisscontrol, moved to new buildings and a new system.

"We moved to a new building in the night from Monday to Tuesday and we used our move to change to a new air control system at the same time," Kurt Duss, head of Swisscontrol in Zurich, told Reuters.

"This system has worked well in the past few years in Geneva. We began using it ... and at first all went well but as capacity increased problems appeared," he said.

"Basically, the screens went blank and air controllers could not see what was on the radar and where the planes were," Duss said, adding Swisscontrol was now handling only 60 percent to 70 percent of normal traffic levels.

He said engineers were working flat out but could not say when the problem could be solved. Swisscontrol not only guides airplanes through Swiss airspace but also through parts of France and Germany.

At Swissair, the SAirGroup airline that uses Zurich as its main hub, the mishap was an embarrassment.

"We are far from happy, it's close to the holiday season," said a spokeswoman, adding that 16 flights had to be canceled Wednesday from the some 850 flights by Swissair and its partners. "We have absolutely no control over it," she said.

Swissair had average delays of 55 minutes Wednesday.

Airline analysts have said the Zurich hub already has a competitive disadvantage for Swissair compared with the Paris hub for Air France or British Air's London hub because of its relative small size and congestion problems.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has warned over the past few weeks of travel chaos hitting millions of European air passengers due to congestion.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), June 30, 1999

Answers

Top

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), June 30, 1999.

"We have absolutely no control over it."

Wierd and wonderful ways... ripples.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 30, 1999.

Considering the historical reputation that the Swiss have for running things on time and efficiently, I find this news to be extremely ominous.

-- M.C. Hicks (mhicks@greenwich.com), June 30, 1999.

Evidently this has been happening for awhile now...

New Swiss air equipment forces big plane delays, cancellations 10.35 a.m. ET (1436 GMT) June 30, 1999

ZURICH, Switzerland (AP)  New air-traffic control equipment caused major flight delays and cancellations in Zurich on Wednesday, disrupting summer vacation travel for thousands.

Only two out of three airliners could take off or land at Zurich airport Wednesday morning. By midday, Swissair alone had canceled six flights, said spokesman Peter Gutknecht.

Gutknecht told Swiss German radio he expected further cancellations in the course of the day.

Air-traffic control problems at the central European hub, which have been occurring over the past three months, worsened Tuesday after Swisscontrol, the supervisory agency, started up three new computers.

Andreas Heiter, a Swisscontrol expert, said the system had been losing radar and other data.

Software installed Wednesday failed to make the new computers accept the data, and it could take days to solve the problems, said Swisscontrol spokesman Geli Spescha.

-- Roland (nottelling@nohwere.com), June 30, 1999.

SwissAir, of course, is just a two-bit airline flying old clunkers in and out of third-world dirt strip runways to other third world countries using the simple Y2K compliant tried-and-true orange wind bags for takeoff info on wind speed and direction.

No worries, mate. No impact on anything else. The rest of the real (truly civilized) world in Europe and here in the US will be just fine next year. Don't need them computers and fancy radars for anything like flying through mountains and landing during winter storms or at night.

Why compared to SwissAir, the rest of the world is way ahead of schedule!

-- Trust US, Everything Will Be Just Fine (your.FAAis@workhere.gov), June 30, 1999.

While this event is disheartening I think that Roland owes an apology to Swiss Air. No where does it say that the radar systems belong to the airline itself. At by the title of your thread you put the airline in a bad light. Is this fair reporting?

-- ~~~~~ (~~~~@~.~), June 30, 1999.

'When we first began to use it things worked..until the volumn increased...'

Test systems work when things are OK. Low transactional volumns is one of those things that let test systems 'work' until you REALLy start to use them.

Then they break.

Happy hunting, bug crushers!

-- ..- (dit@dot.dash), June 30, 1999.

"While this event is disheartening I think that Roland owes an apology to Swiss Air. No where does it say that the radar systems belong to the airline itself. At by the title of your thread you put the airline in a bad light. Is this fair reporting?"

Sheese...let's pick some nits. OK...I apologize to Swiss Air and sincerely hope I'm not sued for liable, being the ace reporter I am and all.

R.

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), June 30, 1999.