UK ATC Glitch Cancels Hundreds of Flights, Investigation Underway

A significant air traffic control system failure at NATS, the UK’s air navigation service provider, disrupted flights across the country on Tuesday. Around 1,750 flights were grounded as a result of the outage, according to reports. Many major airports, including London Heathrow, Gatwick, and Manchester, paused operations at times during the incident.

By Wednesday, the system had stabilized and flights had resumed. However, the knock-on effects continued, with approximately 320 additional cancellations reported. Airports such as Heathrow, Gatwick, Bristol, and Belfast were among those still experiencing disruption.

NATS apologized for the impact of the glitch and stated that its system has recovered. The organization confirmed it will conduct a thorough investigation. In parallel, the Civil Aviation Authority has opened its own inquiry.

NATS director Martin Rolfe met with UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander on Wednesday. According to the BBC, Alexander expressed significant concerns about the scale of the disruption. NATS is expected to deliver preliminary findings on the cause or causes of the glitch by next week.

The outage stranded tens of thousands of travellers, not only in the UK but across Europe, as British airlines were forced to cancel most inbound flights. The BBC spoke with passengers stranded in Spain, Cyprus, and Greece.

The CAA indicated that travellers affected by cancellations or delays are unlikely to receive compensation, though the regulator did not elaborate further in the available extract.