On Friday, 16 October 2026, ENAV, Italy’s air-traffic control operator, temporarily cut national airspace capacity in half. The cause was a fault on the data-transmission network, found overnight. The company ruled out a deliberate attack, including a cyberattack, and said flights remained safe. Deutsche Welle reported the restriction during the day, from those statements.

Until 6:00 a.m., backup systems kept traffic at full capacity. When morning volumes rose and the fault persisted, ENAV introduced flow limits. It said it would protect as many departures as possible, including intercontinental ones; shorter flights were more exposed to delays and cancellations. Rome’s ADR and Milan’s SEA told passengers to check with their airline.

ENAV said the ground instruments themselves were working; the problem was the data network. A secondary satellite link kept the service running but could not take 100% of traffic. The company worked with suppliers, including TIM, which maintains the network. Reuters wrote on Friday morning that Cirium counted 192 cancellations around 10:00 GMT and that only about 31% of Italian departures left on time.

The same day, after technical work, ENAV said the primary network was fully restored and the morning limits were lifted. Traffic was gradually returning to normal nationwide. The morning snapshot of 50% capacity was therefore a phase, not the end of the day.

In Milan, SEA also flagged a 24-hour EasyJet cabin-crew strike, a separate file from the data network. A technical inquiry into the exact cause of the fault continues. This article is not travel advice and does not treat the incident as an attack.

Image: DV, Fiumicino (Leonardo da Vinci) Airport, Rome, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; archive, not a photograph of the 16 October 2026 delays.

Sources consulted: Italy cuts air traffic in half amid data transmission issue - Deutsche Welle; Operativita tornata al 100%, voli verso la normalita - ENAV.