A technical issue with the air traffic control system, Skeyes, in Belgium led to the closure of the country’s airspace, with all incoming flights being diverted to other countries and flights departing from Belgium being cancelled, according to a report by the VRT, a Belgian public broadcasting organization.
The malfunction, which affected the management of the Belgian airspace up to an altitude of 7,500 meters, occurred at around 3 pm. A Skeyes spokesperson, Kurt Verwilligen, stated that the system “did not function properly.”
The system has since been restored and it is expected that takeoffs and landings at Belgian airports, including Brussels-Zaventem, Antwerp, Liège, Charleroi and Ostende, will resume shortly.
Flights operating at altitudes above 7,500 meters, however, continued as planned.
The recent incident in Belgium is not an isolated case, as a similar widespread disruption of air travel services occurred in July, affecting major airlines in the US, the EU, Australia and other countries due to issues with Microsoft’s Azure cloud program. Notable examples of the disruptions include the cancellation of flights by American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Airlines and Frontier Airlines, as well as a global outage reported by Turkish Airlines, which led to problems with ticket booking and check-in. The international airport in Sydney and Berlin Brandenburg Airport also suspended their operations.