Aberdeen and Inverness passengers were left stressed and disappointed due to UK-wide flight delays, with one man desperate to catch a flight to attend his dad’s funeral.
Flights all over the UK today have been grounded following a “failure” of air traffic control services.
To ensure people’s safety, NATS, which runs air traffic control services across the UK, said capacity restrictions have been imposed on flights.
For some travelling for work this has proved a mild inconvenience.
However, for others, it has caused a lot of stress and worry with one man struggling to make his dad’s funeral.
Struggling to make father’s funeral tomorrow morning
At first glance, the terminal at Aberdeen International Airport appears rather quiet.
Apart from a building customer services queue, the Flightradar chaos being broadcast seems a little distant.
It is not long however before the impact starts showing.
Standing with a pile of luggage and a tired toddler is Owen Williams and his partner.
The family are just on their way back from a holiday in Orkney and arrived in Aberdeen to find their flight to Birmingham had been cancelled.
They are now waiting to get a taxi to Inverness to try and get a flight from there.
Looking towards customers services, Mr Williams said: “We just waited in that queue for an hour and half.
“We’re doing all we can and so are they. They’ve managed to get us flights on an Inverness flight and they’ve booked us on a taxi to drive us up.
“Then hopefully we can make that flight.”
For the Williams, the delay has put a dampener at the end of a holiday but for Aberdeen resident Hisham Bereikaa, the cancellations are devastating.
Mr Bereikaa was due to attend his father’s funeral on Tuesday morning in Cairo after he died from heart failure.
But then his flight to London Heathrow got cancelled.
“I need to attend the funeral, it’s tomorrow morning,” Mr Bereikaa said. “I’m really not happy.
“I’m accepting anything to go back to Egypt tomorrow morning, I’ll be appreciating if anything can be done to get me to Egypt.
“I was trying to get through online because the queue is big but also the phones are not going through.”
‘It’s disappointing’
While NATS has managed to identify and remedy the technical fault this afternoon, many still face “very stressful” changes to their travel plans.
A spokesman for AGS Airports, which operates Aberdeen and Glasgow airports, earlier said flights will be impacted and urged passengers to get in contact with their airline.
Another passenger bound for Heathrow Airport has been told to come back on Wednesday to try and get a flight.
Ade Adeshina was travelling to Abuja in Nigeria with a colleague for work.
“They told us the earliest we can leave here now is Wednesday,” he said. “So we are actually trying to get home now to reschedule things. There is a cascading effect.
“We already have meetings scheduled with the national oil company in Nigeria and those meetings don’t come easily.”
A few passengers heading for UK cities are trying to find their own way home by looking at trains and buses which have started to have a growing waiting list.
Euan McFarlane, who is visiting Aberdeen for his dad’s 90th birthday with his family, said they need to get back in time to look after their dogs.
“It’s disappointing,” he added. “We’ll just wait and see and hopefully get back to London at 7am tomorrow morning on the train.
“It will be interesting to see what caused all this.”
‘Sad ending’ to a lovely holiday
Some passengers travelling out of Inverness Airport were told by airlines they could face hours of delays.
Two men travelling on a British Airways flight to London Heathrow have been checking the airline’s app to keep updated with the latest, saying the flight could take off at 2am at the earliest.
One man said: “There has been a lack of information given to the passengers, we have been kept in the dark about what’s going on.”
The duo had been up in the Highlands on holiday and “loved visiting the Isle of Skye”, but the delays had left them a little “frustrated” with how the holiday had ended.
According to the departure board at Inverness, there are several flights delayed, most heading to London, and the daily flight to Amsterdam was cancelled.
A couple heading home to Stornoway was told by staff it could be four hours until their plane departs.
They had been enjoying a weekend of shopping in Inverness and a day trip to Elgin.
The husband said: “It’s just one of those things you can’t control. I suppose we are lucky because we are just heading home, but other passengers could be waiting much longer.”
Luckily, their flight left around 30 minutes after it was supposed to, rather than the hours they had been expecting.
Robert and Jackie Smith, from Hampshire, came to the Highlands to stay with friends in Drumnadrochit.
They have been loving their time with lots of eating and drinking and enjoying the stunning scenery around Loch Ness.
They are booked on the 2.55pm flight to London Gatwick but were told it could be as late as 2am before the flight leaves.
Mr Smith said: “The staff can’t tell us when the system will be back online but we heard we could be waiting until 2am in the morning.
“It’s been a great weekend and unfortunately this is a sad ending to it.”
A Hial spokesman said: “Inverness Airport like many other airports across the country has been affected by the issues with the national UK air traffic control system, with a number of flights experiencing delays.”
Scottish flights hit with huge delays due to ‘air traffic control failure’ across UK
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