Over 1,000 flights cancelled across UK after air traffic control failure

More than 1,000 flights were cancelled across the United Kingdom after a technical fault in the country’s air traffic control system caused widespread disruption at major airports.

National Air Traffic Services (NATS), which manages air traffic control across the UK, said the problem had affected its flight processing system, restricting departures and triggering extensive delays and cancellations on Tuesday.

Heathrow, Manchester and Edinburgh were among the major airports affected. Luton, Birmingham, Aberdeen and Glasgow also reported disruption, while flights between Britain and Dublin faced delays and cancellations.

An analysis of data from Sweden-based flight-tracking service Flightradar24 showed that more than 1,000 flights had been cancelled across British airports by Tuesday night.

Flightradar24 said arrivals and departures were being regulated across airports within the London flight information region because of the technical problem. The restrictions disrupted aircraft movements and created delays across the wider aviation network.

NATS later confirmed that the fault had been fixed but cautioned that clearing the backlog and restoring schedules would take longer than initially expected.

“Our system issue is now resolved,” NATS said in a statement. “We are operating normally and working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights.”

Earlier, the agency said engineers had traced the disruption to its flight processing system and were working to restore normal services as quickly as possible.

Heathrow, Britain’s busiest airport, said it was working closely with NATS to limit the impact on passengers and flight schedules. Edinburgh Airport also advised travellers that their flights could be affected.

British Airways confirmed that its operations had been disrupted by the failure in the national air traffic control system.

The impact extended beyond Britain, with Dublin Airport reporting that services to and from the UK had also been affected. Passengers across the network continued to face delays and cancellations even after the technical issue was resolved.

With IANS inputs