Europe less exposed to a US-style air traffic shutdown

Europe is less likely to face an air traffic disruption on the scale of the recent US shutdown because its systems are organised differently, Finland’s aviation director Jukka Hannola told Yle.

A fault in the US air traffic control system led authorities to halt all flights for several hours on Friday. Hannola, of the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, said the shutdown was intended to minimise risks and that safety must come first in aviation.

A nationwide halt to air traffic is extremely rare. The previous comparable shutdown in the United States followed a system failure in 2023. Before that, flights were halted after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration is responsible for air traffic control across the country. In Europe, each country runs its own air navigation system, although the systems are compatible with one another, Hannola said.

Air traffic control relies on several technical systems, including communications between controllers and aircraft, radar and flight plan transfers. Hannola said details about the cause of the US disruption were not yet available, but faults can occur in such a complex system.

Finland has prepared for technical problems by maintaining backup systems and practising their use, he said. The systems are renewed as needed. Hannola added that age alone does not determine whether a system is reliable: maintenance and updates over its lifetime also matter, and an old, well-tested system can be dependable.

The United States had already been working to modernise its air traffic control systems before the latest disruption. This weekend, the transport minister asked Congress for substantial additional funding for the project. Some systems in the US aviation sector are more than 50 years old.