Air traffic at Eindhoven Airport has been temporarily suspended this evening. This is due to an air traffic controller falling sick.
Arriving and departing flights are halted from 6:15 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. This affects flights arriving from Krakow, Malaga and Athens.
As a result, Woensdrecht Air Base, a key air base for the Royal Netherlands Air Force, announced that they will close for the day on Friday. They say that this will ‘guarantee the continuity of air traffic control for Eindhoven Airport’.
7 August
Air traffic at the airport also came to a standstill on 7 August this year. This was due to understaffing in air traffic control at Schiphol Airport. No flights were able to land or depart for the whole morning, which caused delays to more than fifteen flights. More than one thousand travellers were affected.
Marco Zeemeijer, speaking on behalf of the Royal Netherlands Air Force, says that there is currently a significant shortage of air traffic controllers to guide pilots to and from the ground. He says that at least ten to fifteen more are needed at Eindhoven Airport. Regarding this evening’s chaos, he says, ‘I cannot rule out that it will happen again’.
Source: Omroep Brabant
Translation: Rachael Vickerman
