Air travelers have faced significant disruptions following an air traffic control system outage that brought major UK airports to a standstill.
While the technical issue lasted only 20 minutes, it resulted in a substantial backlog of flights and widespread delays.
Thousands of aircraft were grounded at airports including Heathrow, Stansted, Manchester, and Edinburgh. As of 19:30, over 120 flights to and from the UK had been cancelled.
NATS, the air traffic control firm, stated that the issue was “radar-related” and was promptly addressed by switching to a backup system. Flight traffic has been reduced to ensure safety.
The firm also clarified that there is no indication that the incident was cyber-related.
The government has stated that it is “working closely” with NATS to ascertain the cause of the disruption.
This marks the second major outage experienced by NATS in the past two years.
The previous incident, occurring during the summer bank holiday weekend in August 2023, impacted over 700,000 customers.
NATS reported that the latest incident prompted a limitation on the number of planes in the London area due to a “technical issue” at its Swanwick air traffic control center in Hampshire.
The firm soon announced that engineers had “restored the system that was affected”.
However, numerous planes in the UK were grounded during the system downtime, while others were diverted to alternative airports.
Following the resumption of departures, NATS stated that it was “working with affected airlines and airports to clear the backlog safely.”
British Airways has acknowledged that it is still managing the repercussions.
“While this is entirely outside of our control, we want to apologize to our customers for any inconvenience and assure them that our teams are working hard to get their journeys back on track as quickly as possible,” the airline stated.
Budget airline EasyJet has advised passengers traveling on Wednesday evening to check for up-to-date information regarding their flights, adding that it will contact affected customers directly.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “We are advising passengers to check with their airline before travelling. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
NATS has issued an apology for the outage.
Asha, 18, from Manchester, found herself “stuck” on an EasyJet plane on the tarmac at the city’s airport at 18:00 on Wednesday.
She said her “first holiday interrailing [has] gone wrong”
Asha had been on a 15:10 flight to Amsterdam that took off but was only in the air for 50 minutes before turning around.
Asha said some people on the flight wanted to get off the plane.
She was “hoping for some free food” to make up for the disruption.
One delayed passenger said the pilots were “as frustrated as everyone else”.
Robin Ilott, 62, from Waterlooville in Hampshire, said he’d faced a two-hour and 20 minute delay at Heathrow.
But he added: “It’s better safe than sorry, you don’t want to get up there and find that there’s planes everywhere.”
John Carr, 35, from Stourbridge, is the best man at his brother’s wedding in Norway and was on his way there with a group of friends when their flight was cancelled.
“We’ve got the wedding rehearsal to do. It’s quite stressful,” he told the PA news agency.
His friend James Hedges, also from Stourbridge, said there was “no warning” from the airport or the airline before the flight was cancelled, describing the situation as “rubbish”.
“There’s nothing we can do,” he added.
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey called on the government to investigate the “utterly unacceptable” incident.
“With thousands of families preparing to go on a well earned break, this just isn’t good enough,” he said.
Ryanair chief operating officer Neal McMahon said “yet another” air traffic control system failure has “resulted in the closure of UK airspace meaning thousands of passengers travel plans have been disrupted”.
He said it was “outrageous” that the air traffic control issue has disrupted the plans of thousands of passengers, and called for NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign.
According to flight data firm Cirium, as of 19:30, 67 departures and 55 arrivals had been cancelled across all UK airports.
In addition a number of flights had to be diverted to other airports, it said.
London Heathrow had the highest number of cancellations, a total of 24 departures and 14 arrivals so far.
Cirium does not attribute causes for cancellations, so some may not have been due to the air traffic outage.
Flights in and out of Guernsey and Jersey are delayed due to a technical issue in the UK.
India’s aviation regulator details safety lapses at Air India amid scrutiny after last month’s deadly crash.
Flights are getting bumpier, thanks in part to climate change. But new studies are looking into innovative potential ways to turbulence-proof wings – using AI and owls
One person was taken to hospital after a fire started during takeoff.
One woman said she was left “mortified” when a pilot blamed loading her wheelchair for a delay.