Switzerland forced to ground all flights for two hours due to tech failure

All airports within Switzerland's borders and airspace were forced to shut down for two hours on Wednesday, after a computer failure at air traffic control. Airlines announced that their flights were forced to divert to other countries. Landing in Zurich and Geneva can resume but the disruption is expected to last for the rest of the day.

Zurich and Geneva airports forced to close

Early on the morning of June 15, Geneva Airport announced that all flights arriving and leaving the airport were cancelled or postponed. Zurich Airport followed suit soon after. In a statement, the company responsible for air traffic control, Skyguide, blamed a “technical malfunction” for the disruption. “Swiss airspace is closed until further notice,” a spokesperson said.

Skyguide said that it “regrets this incident and its consequences for the clients, partners and passengers of Geneva and Zurich airports and is working flat out to find a solution.”

Airlines forced to divert flights destined for Zurich and Geneva

For airlines, the disruption meant that all flights taking off from Switzerland were grounded between 6.30am and around 9am, and all flights inbound to Zurich and Geneva had to be diverted to other airports.

“The arriving long-haul flights are currently being diverted to various airports in neighbouring countries, including Milan, Lyon and Vienna. Short-haul flights are currently not taking off,” SWISS said in a statement. SWISS is yet to confirm whether any of these flights are still diverted, now that the issue is resolved.

Luckily, at 8.30am the same morning, Skyguide released a statement saying that the issue had been resolved and that flights were back up and running once more. They apologised for the disruption caused and said that they are doing their best to keep flights running efficiently and with minimal delay.