Airport chaos: Heathrow, London City among worst-affected after air traffic control failure
Heathrow, Gatwick and London City airports are among the most-impacted after a “technical issue” grounded scores of flights across the UK.
Britain’s air traffic control service, Nats, said just before 2pm it was investigating a fault which had delayed departures across most of the UK’s major airports. In an update at 3:25pm, the organisation said it had identified that the issue related to its flight processing system.
Flights are still departing and airspace is open, but recovery “will take some time”, Nats added.
In a statement on its website, Nats said: “We are investigating a technical issue which is causing some disruption to flight departures. Our engineers are on site and we will provide an update as soon as we can.
“We apologise for the delay this will cause to journeys, passengers should check with their airline on the status of their flight.”
Heathrow Airport said arriving flights are not affected.
In a statement the airport said: “The air traffic control service @NATS is experiencing a technical issue which is impacting departing flights at UK airports.
“We are supporting our local Nats team in their efforts to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We will provide updated information when we have it.
“We apologise to those disrupted and advise passengers to check with their airline for latest flight information.”
British Airways, which has been forced to delay the departure times for dozens of flights, said it was “currently experiencing disruption.
“This is out of our control and our teams are working hard to get your travel plans back on track as quickly as possible.”