Gatwick and Heathrow warn of delays after air traffic control meltdown
Airports including Gatwick and Heathrow have warned of further delays as they work to clear a backlog of flights following disruption to the country’s traffic control system yesterday.
Both of the London hubs said flights had resumed on Wednesday but warned of longer wait times and urged passengers to check if their flights were going ahead.
“Following yesterday’s NATS technical issue, flights are operating today, but some disruption may continue as airlines reposition aircraft and crew,” Heathrow posted on X.
“Please check your flight status with your airline before travelling to the airport and only travel if your flight is confirmed to be operating.”
Hundreds of departing flights were delayed and cancelled yesterday after NATS, the British air traffic control system, said its systems had failed. NATS said it had now resolved the issue but recovery had taken “longer than we had hoped”.
“Work is continuing to assist airlines and airports recover from today’s disruption. This has been a very complex recovery and has created difficulties for the whole aviation network, from which it will take time to recover,” the airline said.
Ryanair has called on the government to intervene and fix the UK’s “chronic” air traffic control issues after the disruption. Ryanair’s chief operations officer, Neal McMahon, said NATS boss Martin Rolfe should be ousted and ministers should “put someone in charge who can do the job”.
NATS has been plagued by technical issues in recent years including a radar glitch last year which grounded flights for several hours at London airports.
In 2023, over 1,000 flights were cancelled when a technical error caused the air traffic control system to crash and enter safe mode during one of the busiest weekends of the year.