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Ask Me Anything: Put your questions to Simon Calder as flight cancellations cause mayhem across Europe

Ask our travel expert for advice on your rights and what to do if your flight is cancelled

Wednesday 30 August 2023 03:48 EDT
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Travellers wait near the British Airways check-in area at Heathrow Airport, as Britain’s National Air Traffic Service (Nats) restricts UK air traffic due to a technical issue causing delays, in London, Britain, 28 August 2023
Travellers wait near the British Airways check-in area at Heathrow Airport, as Britain’s National Air Traffic Service (Nats) restricts UK air traffic due to a technical issue causing delays, in London, Britain, 28 August 2023 (Reuters)

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Flight cancellations are continuing as airlines struggle to recover from the four-hour failure of the main air-traffic control system across the UK on bank holiday Monday.

The outage left aircraft and flight crew out of position after the severe disruption on Monday 28 August, with an estimated 1,200 flights to and from the UK cancelled.

Britain’s biggest budget airline, easyJet, grounded more than 80 flights on Tuesday, while British Airways also grounded more than 60 flights.

National Air Traffic Services (Nats) said on Monday at 3.15pm that it had “identified and remedied” the technical issue, but warned the ensuing disruption could last further into the week.

So how likely is it that your travel plans will be impacted by the chaos outlined above? The Independent’s travel correspondent is ready to answer all your questions on this on Wednesday morning (30 August).

What are your rights? Can you claim compensation? Will there be more cancellations in the coming days?

Our expert Simon Calder will be on hand from 9-10am BST, on Wednesday 30 August to answer all your travel questions in an ‘Ask Me Anything’ event. He will be answering live in the comments section below.

Register to submit your question in the comments box under this article. If you’re not already a member, click “sign up” in the comments section to leave your question.

Then join us live on this page from 9am as Simon tackles as many of your travel queries as he can within an hour.

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