Travel chaos across Italian airports after air traffic control failure

Air traffic management capacity has been slashed in half

Hundreds of flights across Italy have been delayed and over 100 cancelled due to "anomalies" with air traffic control (ATC) services.

The Italian air navigation service provider, ENAV, said that issues were spotted last night and that the air traffic management capacity has been cut by 50 per cent into today.

Despite a continuing rise in suspicious incidents surrounding ATC at airports in recent months, ENAV has ruled out any kind of cyberattack.

It was forced to introduce temporary restrictions of the volume of flights after identifying a data transmission problem. 

As per Flightradar24 data, all major airports in Italy are experiencing severe disruption with the largest the worst affected.

Out of the top 10 airports most disrupted in the world as of writing, eight are in Italy.

Italy on the Flightradar disruption map. Image: Screenshot Flightradar24.

These are:

• Rome Fiumicino 
• Milan Malpensa Airport
• Milan Linate Airport
• Milan Bergamo Orio al Serio International Airport
• Bologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport
• Palermo Falcone-Borsellino Airport
• Florence Peretola Airport
• Naples Airport

While flights are continuing to operate from these airports, delays are to be expected.

There are dozens of flights from the UK to Italy every day and it is likely many will be affected.