Half a million air passengers across Europe face delays and cancellations after Eurocontrol systems failure

Sign up to Simon Calder’s free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calder’s Travel email Get Simon Calder’s Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Half a million airline passengers across Europe face delays and cancellations for the rest of the day as a result of a systems failure at the Eurocontrol centre in Brussels. Eurocontrol, which coordinates air traffic for 41 member states, tweeted: “There has been a failure of the Enhanced Tactical Flow Management System. The average daily traffic in April in Eurocontrol’s 41 member states is almost 30,000 flights, which potentially means that 3,000 flights — and up to half a million passengers — could face disruption. Eurocontrol says: “It is a key enabler of the air traffic flow and capacity management services.” Pilots and air-traffic controllers across Europe were told: “All attempts to reactivate ETFMS proved unsuccessful.” Later, Eurocontrol tweeted: "The issue with the ETFMS has been identified and work is progressing to recover the system, which is expected to occur late this evening."