A cascading technical failure at ENAV’s Milan Area Control Centre knocked out radar and communications feeds at 20:55 on Saturday, 6 December, forcing controllers to order an immediate ground-stop at five of northern Italy’s busiest airports: Milan-Malpensa, Milan-Linate, Bergamo-Orio al Serio, Turin-Caselle and Genoa-Cristoforo Colombo. For nearly two hours no aircraft could take off or land, and over 300 flights were delayed, diverted or cancelled, stranding thousands of passengers in Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria and the Aosta Valley.
ENAV engineers traced the problem to a software glitch that corrupted the transmission of radar plots, weather data and flight-plan updates to both tower and cockpit systems. Limited service resumed around 22:15, but intermittent outages continued until full stabilisation shortly after 23:00. Airlines rerouted long-haul arrivals to Zurich, Bologna and Rome; easyJet and Ryanair warned that knock-on delays would spill into Sunday.
![Radar Failure at Milan Area Control Centre Suspends Northwest Italy Air Traffic]()
The incident exposes the fragility of Europe’s increasingly digital air-traffic infrastructure. Italy completed a €750 million modernisation of its ACC network in 2023, yet Saturday’s event suggests lingering integration gaps between legacy and next-gen systems. Aviation analysts note that Malpensa now handles 56 percent more movements than in 2019, leaving little buffer when a single node fails.
For businesses the disruption hit a key industrial corridor: executives heading to automotive plants in Turin or fashion buyers bound for Milan’s trade fairs missed tight meeting windows, and perishables arriving via cargo flights faced clearance delays. Logistics managers are reassessing contingency routings and considering higher-cost trucking from southern hubs.
ENAV has launched an internal investigation and notified EASA. The Transport Ministry demanded an action plan within ten days and signalled possible penalties if redundancy protocols were not properly implemented. Travellers booked this week are advised to monitor NOTAMs and allow extra connection time in northern Italy.
ENAV engineers traced the problem to a software glitch that corrupted the transmission of radar plots, weather data and flight-plan updates to both tower and cockpit systems. Limited service resumed around 22:15, but intermittent outages continued until full stabilisation shortly after 23:00. Airlines rerouted long-haul arrivals to Zurich, Bologna and Rome; easyJet and Ryanair warned that knock-on delays would spill into Sunday.
The incident exposes the fragility of Europe’s increasingly digital air-traffic infrastructure. Italy completed a €750 million modernisation of its ACC network in 2023, yet Saturday’s event suggests lingering integration gaps between legacy and next-gen systems. Aviation analysts note that Malpensa now handles 56 percent more movements than in 2019, leaving little buffer when a single node fails.
For businesses the disruption hit a key industrial corridor: executives heading to automotive plants in Turin or fashion buyers bound for Milan’s trade fairs missed tight meeting windows, and perishables arriving via cargo flights faced clearance delays. Logistics managers are reassessing contingency routings and considering higher-cost trucking from southern hubs.
ENAV has launched an internal investigation and notified EASA. The Transport Ministry demanded an action plan within ten days and signalled possible penalties if redundancy protocols were not properly implemented. Travellers booked this week are advised to monitor NOTAMs and allow extra connection time in northern Italy.
