Dhaka, May 19 -- A control tower failure at Paris Orly Airport led to the cancellation of around 130 flights on Sunday (May 18), leaving thousands of passengers scrambling for alternative routes.

According to Aeroports de Paris, which manages the airport, nearly 40pc of the day's scheduled departures and arrivals were canceled.

The DGAC, France's civil aviation authority, attributed the disruption to "a failure of the air traffic control systems at Orly's tower" early in the afternoon, resulting in a "significant" reduction in flights.

An aviation source told agency that a radar breakdown caused the airport chaos.

The airport spokesman said about half the 130 cancelled flights were departures and half incoming flights.

Flights across...