About 1,100 flights were canceled due to a technical defect at airports in Britain
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About 1,100 flights to and from British airports were canceled on Tuesday due to what the Air Traffic Control Authority described as a “technical glitch,” the latest malfunction to cause disruptions to air traffic.
By 20:00 (19:00 GMT), the number of canceled flights to and from British airports had reached 1,055, according to the “Flight Radar 24” website, which specializes in tracking air traffic.
The British Air Traffic Control Authority said in a post on the
Its chairman, Martin Rolfe, apologized and told the BBC that a full investigation would be carried out into what went wrong, after the Nats said it had taken "longer than we had hoped" to resolve the issue.
The malfunction comes after a technical glitch led in July last year to the cancellation of dozens of flights to and from the United Kingdom, which angered airline officials.
In 2023, the country witnessed the worst malfunction in air traffic control systems in nearly a decade, which led to the delay or cancellation of hundreds of flights and affected more than 700,000 passengers.
Heathrow Airport, the largest and busiest in Britain and located west of London, confirmed that it was among the airports affected by the disruption on Tuesday, along with Gatwick Airport, south of the capital.
Flight delays are expected to continue on Wednesday after a Nats air traffic control problem caused hundreds of flights to be canceled across the UK.
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The holiday was widespread throughout the United Kingdom and beyond.
Airports in Scotland and Ireland also reported disruptions, with easyJet canceling 200 flights and British Airways more than 100.
Ryanair, Europe's busiest airline, also announced on Tuesday that more than 65,000 passengers were delayed for up to eight hours.
At Heathrow Airport, one of the busiest airports in Europe, departures were temporarily halted around lunchtime, then air traffic resumed, before facing more turbulence in the afternoon.
Thirteen flights bound for Heathrow Airport were diverted to other airports in the United Kingdom and Europe.
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Travelers were advised to contact their airlines to check the status of their flights.
British Airways said in a statement that it expects side effects.
A company spokesperson said: “We had to cancel or divert more than 100 flights on Tuesday afternoon, and we are doing our best to keep our customers informed and make arrangements for them to continue their travels.”
He added: “We ask customers whose flights have been canceled not to travel to the airport and to be patient if they are trying to contact us, as our call centers are very busy at the moment.”
Airports across the UK announced they were experiencing cancellations and delays, and advised people to check their flight details before travelling.
According to Flightradar, the most affected airports were Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham.
Ryanair announced that affected passengers will be notified.
Phil White, from Bexhill, told the BBC that his flight to Lanzarote had boarded on time, but he had been sitting on the tarmac at Gatwick for hours.
"We were told the radar was down and we couldn't take off," Phil added.
“It's convenient enough, but the pilots are calling every 20 minutes to say they're waiting for information from air traffic control, and when they get anything they'll let us know,” Phil said.
Side effects of backlog
Even if NATS resolves the issue with its flight processing system, disruption due to a backlog of orders will likely continue.
Rolfe said the problem lay with NATS' flight data processing system.
He explained that this is not the same system that malfunctioned during an incident that occurred in 2023 on the August long weekend.
Although the technical issue affected departures, arrivals were also affected and space on the ground became increasingly limited.
“It will take some time for flights to fully resume, so continue to communicate with airlines,” Transport Minister Heidi-Alexander said.
