European airports heading for millennium computer crash

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[snip]

SOME of Europe's busiest airports and air traffic control centres have fallen seriously behind in their plans to deal with the millennium bug, the software problem that could bring computers worldwide grinding to a halt at the new year.

A Sunday Times investigation has revealed that destinations such as the three main Paris airports, plus others in Spain, Italy, Romania and at Luton, may be unable to complete the work needed to eliminate the problem by the end of this year. Experts have predicted chaos and warned that passengers could be at risk.

The same airports are believed to feature in an "at risk" list being drawn up by the International Air Transport Association, the airlines' trade body. It is spending #12.5m on a study of 331 airports and 134 air traffic control centres around the world, but has provoked anger for refusing requests to reveal its findings - including one from the government.

Robin Guenier, executive director of Taskforce 2000, said: "There's a lot of fear that some airports and air traffic control centres are not going to be ready."

Luton has been pinpointed as the British airport giving greatest cause for concern. An insider said: "They've done very little," adding that the airport may have to close over the new year...

Last week airports in Paris, Rome and Madrid admitted that they were far from resolving the problem. Naples, Italy's third-busiest airport, with 3.5m passengers a year, said it did not expect to complete the work until June next year...

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-- regular (zzz@z.z), May 24, 1999

Answers

regular,

Informative article. Thanks for posting it.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), May 24, 1999.


Gee - I thought only the third world was going to have problems ...... surely Europe won't be affected by this "bump in the road" - but a "bump in the runway" won't affect anybody either.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), May 24, 1999.

Time is no longer a friend. Non-compliance cannot hide behind time much longer. The outline of truth is becoming clearer.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), May 24, 1999.

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