Travelers are facing widespread flight disruptions at Paris-Orly airport for the second consecutive day due to a breakdown of air traffic control systems at the European hub.
The air traffic breakdown first occurred on Sunday, causing the cancellation of at least 130 flights at Orly, which is France’s second largest airport. Officials haven’t revealed what the exact issue is that’s causing the outages. However, France’s aviation authority, DGAC, told France 24 that the situation was caused by an air traffic “malfunction,” and an airport source told the French news channel that the issue was a “radar failure.”
On Sunday afternoon, DGAC requested that airlines cut 15% of their flights at the airport for Monday May 19, as officials were still navigating issues with the air traffic control system. Monday’s disruptions, however, were far less dramatic than on Sunday, when airlines cut 40% of their flights at Orly, which resulted in hundreds of delays and cancellations.
"The situation is improving," a DGAC statement said on Monday, according to France 24. The statement noted that "despite these preventive measures, delays are expected.” As of 11 a.m. ET, there were 148 delays and 14 cancellations at Paris-Orly, according to data from FlightAware.
The situation at Orly comes as nearly identical issues have been plaguing New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) for weeks. At Newark, multiple outages of antiquated telecoms and radar systems, as well as staffing shortages, have been causing ongoing delays and cancellations since late April.
The Federal Aviation Administration has been working to upgrade the air traffic control equipment there and meeting with airlines in recent days to reduce their flight schedules. Cutting flights into the summer months will help mitigate delays while ensuring the number of flights stay at a level that the reduced air traffic control staff can safely manage. It’s yet not clear if Orly staff will have to take similar long-term measures.
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