London: Hundreds of flights at major UK airports were disrupted on Tuesday after a technical failure affected the flight-processing system of NATS, the UK’s air traffic control service provider.
Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted airports were among those affected, with more than 300 flights reportedly cancelled and many others delayed.
NATS said it had identified the problem and engineers were working to restore normal operations as quickly as possible. The airspace remained open and flights continued to operate, although the organisation warned that it could take some time for the system to return fully to normal.
According to flight-tracking platform FlightAware, around 100 flights had been cancelled at Heathrow, while 367 were delayed. At Gatwick, around 250 flights, or 31% of the total, were reportedly running late.
The disruption also affected airports including Edinburgh, Dublin, Luton, Birmingham, Aberdeen and Glasgow.
British Airways said its flights had been affected by the technical problem and that the issue was outside the airline’s control. EasyJet also said the disruption was causing delays to flights across Europe.
Similar technical failures in 2023 and July last year had previously caused widespread disruption and resulted in airlines suffering losses running into millions of pounds.
