UK air traffic control glitch causes mass flight cancellations and delays

Significant flight delays are anticipated to persist on Wednesday following a widespread disruption to air traffic control services across the United Kingdom. The technical fault, which affected the national air traffic control provider Nats, resulted in the cancellation of hundreds of flights and impacted tens of thousands of passengers. Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 indicates that up to 1,000 flights were cancelled due to the glitch. Martin Rolfe, the chief executive of Nats, issued an apology and confirmed that a full investigation would be launched to determine the cause of the failure. He acknowledged that resolving the issue had taken longer than initially expected, while maintaining that his immediate priority was ensuring the problem was fully solved.

The disruption was extensive, affecting airports in Scotland and Ireland as well as major hubs in England. With a limited number of aircraft able to take off, landings were restricted, which prevented some flights from departing overseas airports. EasyJet reported making 200 cancellations, while British Airways cancelled more than 100 flights. Ryanair, Europe’s busiest airline, stated that more than 65,000 of its passengers experienced delays of up to eight hours. At Heathrow, one of the busiest airports in Europe, departures were paused around lunchtime before resuming, only to face further disruption in the afternoon. The airport reportedly ran out of space for incoming flights because departing planes were unable to leave, leading to thirteen Heathrow-bound flights being diverted to other airports in the UK and Europe.

This is not the first instance of disruption affecting Nats’ control systems. Ryanair and Wizz Air have previously called for an overhaul of the organisation, with Wizz Air describing Nats as not fit for purpose in its current form. When asked about his position, Rolfe stated that there would be time to consider that matter later, but his focus remained on resolving the current issue. He clarified that the fault lay in Nats’ flight data processing system, which is distinct from the system that failed during an incident in 2023 over the August Bank Holiday weekend. The system processes flight plans and operational information used by controllers to manage air traffic, continually updating data as aircraft progress through UK airspace to maintain a safe and orderly flow.

Passengers have been advised to contact their airlines to check flight status, as call centres are experiencing high volumes of enquiries. British Airways said it was anticipating knock-on effects and urged customers with cancelled flights not to travel to the airport. Phil White, a passenger from Bexhill, described being left sitting on the tarmac at Gatwick for hours after his flight to Lanzarote boarded on time. He reported that pilots were updating passengers every twenty minutes while waiting for information from air traffic control. Similarly, Chloe Davis, an aspiring pilot from Cambridgeshire, was delayed on a Virgin flight to Orlando at Heathrow. She noted that planes were parked on the taxi way due to a lack of available gates. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander stated that it would take time to fully resume flights and that she was seeking assurances that lessons would be learned and that aviation support systems were up to the job.