Dear friends, Dear colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, Despite the irritation, frustration, and anger caused by a system failure and the temporary stoppage of all flights within the Athinai/Makedonia FIR for several hours on Sunday, 4 January 2026—an event that affected the entire network and particularly the South-East (SE) Axis—the usual professionalism demonstrated by air traffic controllers (ATCOs) in Greece and across the region must be commended. Their actions ensured, as

Brussels, 05 January 2026, The Air Traffic Controllers European Unions Coordination (ATCEUC) expresses its profound concern over yesterday’s unprecedented failure of both primary and backup communication systems at the Athens Area Control Center (ACC), which forced a temporary closure of Greek airspace and disrupted thousands of flights during one of the busiest travel periods of the year. For eight hours, the Athens FIR remained closed, while for two critical hours, Greek co