The air navigation service provider Skyguide lifted the capacity restrictions in Geneva's airspace this morning. The heavy rainfall on Tuesday evening had led to flooding in the basement of the air traffic control centre in Geneva. As a result, airspace capacity had to be reduced for safety reasons.
The cooling systems of Skyguide’s data centre are located in the flooded basement of the building in Geneva. Several measures have been taken to ensure that the air traffic control systems do not overheat and to guarantee the cooling of the control room. For example, Skyguide has acquired an additional external cooling system and a mobile diesel generator to support the existing, deteriorated generators. This ensures that the air traffic control systems can continue to function in the event of a power failure. These devices have been successfully tested for their suitability and functions and are now in use.
However, these are temporary solutions. It will take some time before the damage caused by the water in the various premises has been fully repaired and normal automated exploitation can be resumed. Thanks to the measures taken, however, Skyguide is able to safely manage air traffic in Geneva’s airspace at full capacity again. Further measures have also been taken to prevent such an event from happening again in the future.