Gatwick Airport axes 165 flights due to Covid outbreak among staff

GATWICK Airport has cancelled more than 150 flights for the rest of the week after a Covid outbreak among its staff.

The airport will be restricted to only 800 flights a day, in and out, as nearly one third of its air traffic control team is off sick.

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It will cause misery for hundreds of passengers as 65 flights are planned to be cut on Friday, 40 flights on Thursday and a further 30 will be axed on Wednesday and Sunday.

Tuesday and Saturday had remained unaffected last night.

It comes after staff shortages at National Air Traffic Services (Nats) have already caused 50 flights to be cancelled on Sunday and 80 on Monday.

Stewart Wingate, chief executive of London Gatwick, said: “This has been a very difficult decision but the action we have taken today means our airlines can fly reliable flight programmes, which gives passengers more certainty that they will not face last minute cancellations.

“We are working closely with Nats to build resilience in the control tower, and this decision means we can prevent as much disruption as possible.

“London Gatwick would like to sincerely apologise to any passengers who have been impacted by these restrictions.”

Earlier this month Gatwick was again forced to cancel 40 flights in one day due to a last-minute sickness.

The cap on flights will remain in place until Sunday 1 October.

It is the latest is a string of air traffic control incidents causing havoc for holidaymakers.