More flights delayed as UK air traffic control glitch causes disruption

More flights are expected to be delayed in the United Kingdom (UK) after a technical problem with the country’s air traffic control system led to more than 2,000 cancellations.

A total of 291 flights were cancelled on Wednesday after 1,750 were cancelled on Tuesday, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Tens of thousands of passengers have been affected by the disruption.

National Air Traffic Services (NATS), the UK’s air traffic control provider, blamed the disruption on a technical glitch. Its chief executive, Martin Rolfe, apologised and said a full investigation would be carried out.

He admitted that resolving the problem had taken “longer than hoped”.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband described the outage as “unacceptable”, while Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander summoned Rolfe to explain what happened.

The disruption affected several major UK airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham. Airports in Ireland also reported disruption.

At Heathrow, departures were initially paused on Tuesday before operations resumed and then faced further disruption later in the day.

Heathrow said its operations were recovering on Wednesday but warned passengers of further delays because aircraft and crew needed to be repositioned.

Gatwick also said flights had resumed but warned that it would take time for operations to return fully to normal.

Passengers have been advised to check directly with their airlines before travelling to airports. Heathrow said passengers should only travel if they have a confirmed flight.

The technical fault affected NATS’ flight data processing system. Rolfe said it was not the same system that failed during a major disruption in 2023.

However, the latest incident is the third technical problem experienced by NATS in three years. A computer shutdown in 2023 caused widespread disruption affecting around 700,000 passengers, while another outage in 2025 resulted in about 150 cancellations.

Airlines including Ryanair and Wizz Air have called for changes to NATS. Wizz Air UK managing director Yvonne Moynihan said the company needed to consider whether NATS was “fit for purpose”.

Despite the disruption, Rolfe defended the UK’s air traffic control system, saying it remained one of the best in the world.

However, former NATS air traffic control manager Doug Maclean said repeated failures were undermining the system’s reputation.

Even though the technical issue has been resolved, passengers are expected to face further disruption because of the backlog of flights, aircraft and crew.

NATS said it was working to restore normal operations as quickly as possible.

(BBC News)