Skyguide Glitch Disrupts Flights at Zurich Airport

Flight operations at Zurich Airport were significantly disrupted on Sunday morning following a technical fault at Switzerland’s air traffic control provider, Skyguide. The issue led to widespread delays and a temporary closure of parts of Swiss airspace.

According to airport officials, airspace east of Bern was closed for several hours as a precaution while engineers worked to identify and resolve the problem. The disruption impacted both incoming and outgoing flights at Switzerland’s busiest airport.

Authorities confirmed that no take-offs were possible during the initial phase of the disruption. Landings were still permitted until 06:45 am, after which operations were heavily restricted.

Skyguide reported that overall air traffic capacity was reduced to around 40% at approximately 08:00 am. Flight operations began to gradually resume from 07:45 am, although delays continued throughout the morning. A spokesperson for Zurich Airport, Livia Caluori, stated that the situation remained fluid as operations slowly returned to normal. The full scale of the disruption, including the number of affected flights and passengers, was initially unclear.

Skyguide confirmed that the incident was caused by a technical malfunction within its systems. A crisis management team was immediately activated to handle the situation and ensure passenger safety.

The company stated that the decision to close parts of Swiss airspace was taken as a precautionary measure to protect passengers and aircraft while technical teams worked to restore normal operations.

Investigations are ongoing to determine the exact cause of the failure and to prevent similar incidents in the future.