New COVID wave forces flight cancellations at Gatwick Airport

Gatwick Airport has been forced to reduce its number of flights over the next week as a result of shortage of air traffic control staff.

According to Evening Standard, the airport said it expected some 82 flights over the coming week to be cancelled, which comes on top of delays and cancellations on Sunday and Monday.

“We are working closely with National Air Traffic (NATS) to build resilience in the control tower, and this decision means we can prevent as much disruptions as possible.

“London Gatwick would like to apologise to any passengers who have been impacted by these restrictions,” the airport stated.

The planned cancellations account for around three per cent of planned departures.

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Data from tracking website FlightRadar24 earlier Monday revealed that 64 flights to or from the West Sussex airport were axed over the past two days.

EasyJet made up dozens of the flights affected with some passengers facing delays of up to seven hours.

The airline said it was “extremely disappointed” by the issue which saw eight flights cancelled to and from Belfast. Other flights to or from Edinburgh, Geneva and Paris were also impacted.

An easyJet spokesperson said: “We are extremely disappointed that customers are once again being impacted by this and while this is outside of our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused to our customers.

“We are doing all possible to minimise the impact of the disruption and have notified those on cancelled flights of their options to rebook or receive a refund and are providing hotel accommodation and meals where required.”

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.