Air traffic control issue disrupts departing flights at major UK airports

On Tuesday, technical difficulties at air traffic control provider NATS caused disruptions to hundreds of departing flights at major British airports. Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, and Stansted were among the airports affected by cancellations and delays. NATS confirmed the issue was within their flight processing system, with engineers on-site working to restore normal operations as quickly as possible.

Flights were still departing, but recovery would take time. Heathrow, Britain's largest hub, worked with NATS to resolve the problem. About 100 flights were cancelled at Heathrow and 367 delayed, while 250 flights were delayed at Gatwick, accounting for roughly 31% of its total. Edinburgh Airport, Ireland's Dublin Airport, London's Luton, Birmingham Airport, Aberdeen, and Glasgow also reported delays and cancellations.

British Airways and EasyJet faced disruptions, impacting flights across Europe. This incident follows previous NATS outages in 2023 and 2024 that caused significant disruption, costing airlines over £100 million in refunds and compensation. A similar radar-related issue in July last year disrupted flights for over four hours at major London airports.