Eurocontrol’s Enhanced Tactical Flow Management System failure – has restarted normal flow management operations.

There has been a failure of the Enhanced Tactical Flow Management System (ETFMS), with also an impact on the associated flight plan system. Contingency procedures are being put in place which will have the effect of reducing the capacity of the European network by approximately 10%.

Work is underway to solve the issue and further information will be provided as soon as possible.

The ETFMS is central to the flow management function of the Network Manager, which regulates the flow of flights around Europe. Air Traffic Control has not been directly affected and there are no safety implications arising from this incident.

EUROCONTROL very much regrets the disruption that has been caused to passengers and airlines due to today’s outage of the Enhanced Tactical Flow Management System (ETFMS).

The contingency procedures put in place ensured that safety was not compromised at any time.

As of 18.00 UTC, following the resumption of the ETFMS, the EUROCONTROL Network Manager has restarted normal flow management operations. This has been done after extensive internal testing and in coordination with airports, airlines and air traffic control across Europe and beyond.

In over 20 years of operation, the ETFMS has only had one other outage which occurred in 2001. The system currently manages up to 36,000 flights a day.