Bürgenstock peace summit no-fly zone disrupts Zurich flights

The disruption at Skyguide linked to the Bürgenstock conference Keystone-SDA

The integration of a no-fly zone around the Bürgenstock peace conference caused a technical fault at Swiss air traffic controller Skyguide, which affected Zurich airport flights.

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The no-fly zone was activated at the last minute, as the decision to stage Iran-United States negotiations at the central Swiss resort was only taken on Saturday, said Skyguide.

The activation caused a disruption affecting the radar display at the Dübendorf control centre and at Zurich airport’s control tower.

Due to this technical incident, Skyguide closed the airspace east of Bern for several hours. At Zurich airport, no take-offs were possible for part of the morning, according to an airport spokesperson. Landings, however, were able to continue until 6.45am.

Aircraft already on approach to Zurich were exempt from these restrictions. Delegations attending the Bürgenstock peace conference were also able to land as planned. Safety was ensured at all times, Skyguide stressed.

Gradual resumption of operations

Skyguide’s specialists were quickly able to pinpoint the fault. Air traffic at Zurich Airport was then gradually restored from 07:45. Since then, operations have returned to normal and are once again running without restrictions.

As a precautionary measure, however, a slight reduction in capacity will remain in place for overflights until Monday at 08:00. According to Skyguide, this measure is expected to have a barely noticeable impact on operations thanks to the opening of additional airspace sectors.

Translated from French, sub-edited by mga