UK hit by new air traffic outage, flights cancelled

London, September 21 - UK flights encountered additional delays on Monday due to a technical problem at the country's air traffic control agency, the second such disruption in two weeks. The National Air Traffic Services (NATS), which has faced multiple incidents recently, apologized for the latest issue at a Scottish center, which has been resolved.

NATS stated they are collaborating with airports and airlines to mitigate further disruptions. This outage followed another on September 8-9, during which a software glitch caused over 2,000 flight cancellations and numerous delays, affecting more than 330,000 passengers.

A NATS spokesperson clarified that the current issue at their Prestwick center in Scotland is unrelated to the previous outage. According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, 72 out of more than 6,000 flights to or from the UK were cancelled in the latest incident. While this level of cancellations is close to normal (around one percent), the aviation industry anticipates a rapid deterioration in operational performance.

Glasgow and Belfast airports experienced high cancellation rates, but London-area airports were less impacted.

Transport minister Heidi Alexander acknowledged the frustration among passengers, following the previous technical issue. Irish airline Ryanair demanded the resignation of NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe, who received support from Downing Street after the earlier incident. The world's largest carrier by passenger numbers reported that over 140 Ryanair flights were delayed, leaving 25,000 passengers facing delays.

Earlier this month, Ryanair faced widespread anger after scores of flights to and from the UK were cancelled due to a technical glitch in July 2025.

The travel chaos follows Britain's worst air systems failure in years in 2023, when more than 700,000 passengers were affected after hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled. NATS operates under a public-private partnership model since 2001, with the government holding a 49-percent stake and a "golden share" to intervene in strategic decisions. The remaining shares are held primarily by a consortium of airlines.