Enaire has confirmed that air traffic services have returned to normal following an electricity blackout that affected Spain, including the ANSP’s telecoms providers.
The gradual restoration of the telecoms services used by the aeronautical communications nodes for the supply of voice and radar data in the Enaire network has allowed air operations to return to normal, at 100% capacity, in the three route control centers impacted by yesterday's power outage: Madrid, Barcelona, and Seville.
Most of Spain suffered a 23-hour blackout on Monday 28 April, causing chaos across the country. The power cut affected traffic lights, trains and communications systems, meaning payments could not be made and mobile phones did not.
Enaire enacted a contingency system for power failures and the preventive measures adopted to compensate for the outages from external telecommunications operators guaranteed air mobility in Spain throughout the electricity crisis, despite the significant impact on operations caused by the blackout in Spain, Portugal, and some areas of France.
The affected air traffic control centers ensured the continuity of scheduled operations by relying on redundant power systems using generators based on power sets designed for this type of incident. Enaire said its generators can act as backup for up to four days, sufficient time to indefinitely procure the fuel supply needed to operate.
However, communication between Enaire’s radars, communications transmitters and control centers are provided by telecommunications providers Telefónica and Evolutio and were affected by the power outage. This affected the availability of voice and data services between controllers and pilots, especially throughout the afternoon and in some sectors of en-route airspace managed by control centers.
To mitigate the situation, Enaire adopted various flow control measures, limiting capacity with the priority objective of ensuring safe operations.
Real-time monitoring of incidents caused by the power failure was done by the Enaire Crisis Committee and in coordination with Eurocontrol, AENA, and airlines implemented the necessary measures to ensure the continuity of air traffic.
The temporary and preventive reduction of capacity in en-route sectors, with preventive capacity restrictions, allowed for the safe flow of air traffic.