UK air traffic control failure leads to delays and cancellations at airports

Multiple planes have been grounded in the UK today following a “network-wide failure” of the country’s air traffic control systems.

The National Air Traffic Service NATS, said in an early afternoon statement: “We are currently experiencing a technical issue and have applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety. Engineers are working to find and the fix the fault.”

By 2:30pm, 271 flights coming into UK airports had been cancelled, around 9 per cent of all arrivals. The data only covered cancelled flights, but many services were reporting over eight hour delays which are likely to result in a cancellation and would significantly beef up the numbers.

There looked to be no end in sight until a statement from NATS shortly after 3pm which confirmed that the UK was back up and running, with the “technical issue” now resolved – however passengers still faced rampant disruption, with some left stranded.

Loganair, the Glasgow-based airline, first warned customers on X, formally known as Twitter, that flights would be “subject to delays due to the outage.”

In a statement, the airline said: “There has been a network-wide failure of UK air traffic control computer systems this morning.

“Although we are hopeful of being able to operate most intra-Scotland flights on the basis of local co-ordination and with a minimum of disruption, north-south and international flights maybe subject to delays.

“If you are flying with us today, please check our website for the latest information about your flight before setting off for the airport.”

A slew of major airlines including British Airways, Ryanair and Aer Lingus cancelled a number of flights out across the UK over the course of the afternoon.

The Aer Lingus airline said: “Due to a failure of the UK air traffic control flight planning systems, which is outside of Aer Lingus’ control, there are severe restrictions on all flights into the UK and flying over UK airspace today.

“We would ask you to check the status of your flight before coming to the airport today as delays and cancellations are likely.”

Ryanair said: “Due to another UK ATC failure, Ryanair will be forced to delay/cancel a number of flights to/from the UK today, Aug 28.

“All affected passengers will be notified of their options to change flights (free of charge) to another Ryanair flight or receive a full refund.”

A spokesperson for British Airways said that flights had been “severely disrupted as a result of a major issue experienced by NATS Air Traffic Control earlier today.”

“While NATS has now resolved the issue, it has created significant and unavoidable delays and cancellations.”