Air travellers faced delays and cancellations across Italy on Friday due to a technical fault affecting air traffic control, which authorities said was not caused by malicious activity.
Air traffic authority ENAV said it introduced temporary restrictions on air traffic capacity after detecting anomalies overnight on the data transmission network supporting air traffic control services nationwide. Emergency contingency systems allowed traffic to be managed normally until 06:00, after which flow-regulation measures temporarily reduced the number of aircraft that can be handled in Italian airspace.
Rome airports operator ADR said that "due to technical issues affecting air traffic control systems nationwide, flight delays and cancellations may occur," and advised passengers to contact their airline. Milan airports company SEA issued a similar notice.
ENAV said the source of the problem has been identified and efforts are under way to restore full operations, and ruled out a cyberattack or sabotage. A separate 24-hour easyJet cabin-crew strike on the same day added to disruption at Italian airports.