MILAN, Italy, Oct 7 (AFP) - A three-minute breakdown in the air traffic control system in northwest Italy, coupled with fog in Rome, brought chaos to the region's airports Thursday.
Radar screens that monitor air traffic in the Milan area went blank for three minutes around 10:00 am (0800 GMT) in the third such incident in 24 hours, said a spokesman for the company in charge of air traffic control, ENAV.
As a result 110 flights in and out of Milan's Malpensa and Linate airports were cancelled, a spokesman for SEA, which runs the Milan airports, said.
Delays for those flights which were able to leave were still exceeding 90 minutes at 6:00 pm (16OOGMT), eight hours after the breakdown.
For safety reasons traffic in and out of airports in the region, chiefly Turin, Genoa and Bergamo, was cut by half, ENAV said.
Two similar breakdowns Wednesday badly disrupted air traffic with hundreds of flights cancelled or delayed. ENAV is still searching for the cause of the breakdowns.
Politicians have reacted angrily, with Maurizio Lupi, a deputy for the Forza Italia party of the ruling coalition, calling on Transport Minister Pietro Lunardi to open an enquiry and describing the series of breakdowns as "inconceivable".
Opposition parliamentarian Renzo Lusetti, a senior centre-left politician, said the incidents were "unacceptable".
According to Osvaldo Gammino, an executive with one of the companies using Linate, the airlines' losses could total 20 million euros (24.5 million dollars).