Swiss airspace "is closed until further notice" due to a computer failure: the Skyguide air traffic control service announced in a statement.
This morning the airports of Geneva and Zurich, among the largest in Switzerland, were paralyzed.
"In the early hours of this morning there was a technical failure in Skyguide, the Swiss air traffic control service, which meant that Swiss airspace was closed to traffic for safety reasons", reads the Skyguide statement.
The Swiss air traffic control service did not provide any explanation for the failure, stating only that "this airspace closure applies until further notice" and stressing that the company "regrets this incident and its consequences for the its customers, partners and passengers at Geneva and Zurich airports and is working hard to find a solution. "
Geneva Cointrin International Airport tweeted that "all take-offs and landings at Geneva Airport are suspended until 11 am".
A spokesperson for Zurich airport, the other major airport in the Alpine country, said the airport remained open despite the interruption.
According to the ATS-Keystone agency,
The Zurich Airport website shows that United Airlines flight UA134 from New York was diverted to Frankfurt airport, while Singapore Airlines flight SQ346 was diverted to southern Germany and Munich airport.
Zurich is Switzerland's largest airport, with over 10.2 million passengers boarding or passing through its terminals in 2021. With the gradual lifting of health restrictions, traffic has increased significantly since March, approaching pre-pandemic levels a month later. month.
Traffic jumped to 1.3 million passengers in March, then to more than 1.8 million in April and more than 1.9 million in May at the airport, which increased the number of destinations served to 191 for the summer period, thanks to the resumption of tourism.
Just over 5.9 million passengers passed through Geneva, while air traffic, as in Zurich, was still heavily affected by health restrictions.
Since March, however, traffic has seen a strong recovery, exceeding one million passengers per month.
