NATS resolves technical issue at Prestwick air traffic centre

NATS says it has fixed a problem at its Prestwick air traffic control centre in Scotland that delayed flights at several airports.

The UK air navigation service reported a "technical issue" at the facility on 21 September and imposed air traffic restrictions while it was dealt with. Prestwick handles traffic for the Scottish flight information region and works alongside the Swanwick centre, which oversees the London FIR.

NATS called the problem a "connectivity issue with part of our systems network" and said it was specific to the Scottish operation. It was unrelated to the system failure on 8 September that caused widespread disruption to UK air traffic control, the service added.

Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen were among the airports where flights were delayed. NATS said it was working with airports and airlines to lift the remaining restrictions as quickly as possible and limit further disruption, and apologised to passengers, advising them to check with their airline for the latest flight information.

Airlines UK expressed frustration at what its chief executive Tim Alderslade called "yet another NATS failure", after the earlier September outage. He said the UK air traffic system is critical national infrastructure and must be resilient enough to keep people moving, adding that passengers and airlines deserve better.

The Prestwick disruption came less than two weeks after the 8 September failure, which NATS has said was a separate matter.