Cyberattack ruled out in UK air traffic glitch that hit hundreds of flights

British air travellers endured further disruption on Wednesday as nearly 400 flights were cancelled across the country due to a technical glitch that hit the UK's air traffic control service. The incident followed the cancellation of 1,746 flights on Tuesday, primarily affecting those to and from London Heathrow, one of Europe's busiest airports.

Over 330,000 passengers were impacted over the two days, with 155,000 seeing their flights cancelled and around 180,000 experiencing delays, according to industry body Airlines UK.

A spokesperson for the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) stated that they have ruled out cyber activity as the cause of the outage, emphasizing that they do not believe it was a cyberattack. NATS will conduct a thorough investigation to determine the exact cause of the incident.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander acknowledged the issue was not "unavoidable" and ordered an independent review to establish the cause and ensure air traffic control systems can effectively manage passenger transportation. The review is expected to report within six months.

Passenger rights rules suggest that impacted travelers are unlikely to be entitled to compensation for the outage, which is expected to be considered extraordinary circumstances. Major airports such as Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and Dublin also experienced flight cancellations and delays due to the technical glitch.