UK flights disrupted after second National Air Traffic Services technical fault in a fortnight

Flights have been disrupted in parts of the UK after National Air Traffic Services was hit by its second technical issue in a fortnight.

A number of departing and arriving flights were severely delayed and dozens cancelled on Monday with disruption affecting Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.

The fault was reported to have occurred at Nats’s second control centre, at Prestwick in Scotland and fixed by about 10.30am.

Airlines including British Airways and easyJet reported immediate cancellations. A total of 35 flights have so far been cancelled across UK airports, according to the analysts Cirium.

The failure came less than two weeks after a major incident at Nats control centre in England disrupted travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers, and only three days after the release of an initial report into that incident by Nats promising to “continually improve the critical service we provide”.

A Nats spokesperson said: “The issue in our Prestwick centre is now fixed. We are working with airports and airlines to safely lift air traffic regulations as quickly as we can to minimise any further disruption. Passengers should still check the status of their flight with their airline. We apologise for the disruption.”

Nats said the problem was “unrelated to the issue two weeks ago. We apologise for the disruption.”

The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, posted on X just after 10.30am that the latest technical issue was resolved. She said: “There has been a further IT issue affecting Nats. Engineers have fixed the problem and systems are resuming.

“I know this will be deeply frustrating for passengers after the previous issue. There may be some delays as things reset. Please check with your airline for updates.”

An easyJet spokesperson said: “A Nats air traffic control system failure in its Prestwick centre is causing delays to flights with some unable to operate. This, once again, calls into question the resilience of Nats’s systems and demonstrates the need for firm actions to prevent these repeated failures.”

A BA spokesperson said: “Yet another technical fault with Nats means some of our customers are likely to experience disruption to their travel plans today.

“This is disappointing, and while it is an issue that is entirely out of our control, we’re doing everything we can to limit the impact on customers and are keeping them updated.”

Ryanair repeated its demands for the sacking of the Nats chief executive, Martin Rolfe. The airline’s chief operations officer, Neal McMahon, added: “Just three days after Nats assured airlines and passengers that it had introduced robust ‘mitigation plans’, its flight data processing system has failed again.

“More than 25,000 Ryanair passengers have already suffered disruption, with over 140 Ryanair flights delayed.”