UK hit by new air traffic outage, cancelling flights

New air traffic disruption hit the UK on Monday, resulting in flight cancellations and delays. The National Air Traffic Services (NATS) experienced a technical issue at their center in Scotland, leading to the latest outage. This is the second such incident in two weeks, following a software glitch on September 8-9 that caused over 2,000 flight cancellations and affected nearly 330,000 passengers.

NATS issued an apology for the latest incident and stated that they are collaborating with airports and airlines to minimize further disruption. The aviation analytics firm Cirium reported that approximately 200 out of over 6,000 flights to or from the UK were canceled as of Monday morning. While Glasgow and Belfast experienced high cancellations, London's airports were unaffected.

Transport Minister Heidi Alexander acknowledged the inconvenience caused to passengers, emphasizing that the issue is being addressed promptly. Irish airline Ryanair called for NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe's resignation, citing the repeated failures. EasyJet, the most affected airline, reported 47 cancelled flights and called for improved resilience in NATS systems.

This latest air traffic outage follows a significant incident in July 2025, where scores of flights were canceled due to a technical glitch, leading to anger from airline chiefs. In 2023, Britain suffered its worst air systems failure in years, affecting over 700,000 passengers with hundreds of flights delayed or canceled. NATS operates under a public-private partnership model, with the government holding a 49% stake and a golden share for strategic interventions.