Air traffic control issue disrupts departing flights at major UK airports
NATS said it fixed the fault and flights are starting to recover after nearly 300 cancellations and delays across UK airports, Flightradar24 said.
- On Tuesday, September 8, 2026, a technical fault in the National Air Traffic Services flight processing system disrupted departures across 15 UK airports, leaving passengers stranded as airlines faced widespread cancellations.
- Engineers identified the fault and implemented a fix after the afternoon disruption, with NATS stating the system was "starting to recover" while warning that returning to normal operations would "take some time."
- Flightradar24 reported 425 flights cancelled by 5pm, with British Airways diverting or cancelling over 100 flights and EasyJet warning of significant operational strain across Europe.
- Ryanair Chief Operations Officer Neal McMahon demanded the resignation of NATS CEO Martin Rolfe, citing "repeated mismanagement" and claiming families and visitors "paid the price" for the failure.
- British Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is "seeking assurances that lessons will be learned" regarding system reliability, as the Civil Aviation Authority will evaluate infrastructure investments and contingency protocols.
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Travel chaos at UK airports as over 1,000 flights cancelled
London: An air traffic control problem disrupted travel across Britain on Tuesday, September 8, cancelling more than 1,000 flights and leaving passengers stranded for hours on airport runways and in terminals, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24. Britain’s National Air Traffic Services said it had resolved a problem in its flight processing system in the evening but delays rippled across 15 UK airports and beyond as airlines and a…
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Glitch sparks flight chaos in UK
Hundreds of departing flights from major British airports were disrupted on Tuesday after air traffic control provider NATS experienced a technical issue, with Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted among the hubs affected by cancellations and delays. "We have identified that the issue was in our flight processing system. Our engineers are on site and working urgently to resume normal operations as quickly as possible," NATS said in a statem…
Massive disruption hits UK airports after air traffic control issue
Major disruption was expected to continue at British airports on Wednesday – including Heathrow, one of Europe’s busiest hubs – after an hours-long air traffic control outage triggered widespread delays and cancellations.
Technical fault forces cancellation of nearly 1,100 UK flights
London: A technical fault in the air traffic control system on Tuesday forced the cancellation of nearly 1,100 flights to and from UK airports, causing widespread disruption.By 19:00 GMT, 1,055 flights had been cancelled, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24.The UK’s air traffic control provider, NATS, said the fault had been resolved and operations had returned to normal.However, it explained that recovery had taken longer than ex…
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