UK air traffic control glitch causes mass cancellations

A technical problem at UK air traffic control provider NATS caused massive disruption on Tuesday, with more than 1,000 flights cancelled and over 65,000 passengers affected. The outage prevented departures and stopped airports from accepting landings due to ground congestion.

British Airways cancelled 48 percent of its flights, Virgin Atlantic 41 percent, Wizz Air UK 22 percent, and easyJet 21 percent, according to Flightaware data. London Heathrow saw 44 percent of flights cancelled and Gatwick 41 percent, with disruption also reported at Bristol, Belfast, Glasgow, and other airports.

NATS said the system problem was resolved on Tuesday evening, but the fix took longer than expected. The provider apologised and said it was working to clear the backlog. Knock-on effects continued into Wednesday, with further cancellations at Heathrow.