Skyguide temporarily reduced approach capacity at Zurich Airport by 30% on Wednesday morning after a technical fault at its Dübendorf control center disrupted the display of some inbound aircraft with significant delays. The Swiss air navigation provider said safety remained guaranteed throughout.
The problem affected the interface between en-route and approach control, forcing controllers to handle the affected flights manually through an established but slower procedure. Skyguide said the fault was identified and a task force was launched to resolve it.
The airport warned that delays were possible, although no cancellations had been recorded at the time of the first update. Capacity was already limited by the bise, a strong northeasterly wind that was restricting operations independently of the software issue.
Skyguide later said the problem had been fixed through a software update on all affected workstations and that the temporary capacity restriction had been lifted in the afternoon. The company said the disruption had caused little additional delay beyond the weather-related constraints already in place.