Air traffic control issue disrupts departing flights at major UK airports
Nats said engineers were working to restore normal operations as FlightRadar24 reported about 4% of UK flights were delayed or cancelled.
- On Tuesday, September 8, 2026, a technical fault in the flight processing system at National Air Traffic Services disrupted nearly 1,000 flights across the United Kingdom, triggering widespread cancellations and delays at major airports.
- Britain's aviation network has faced a pattern of high-profile failures in recent years; a 2023 technical fault disrupted more than 700,000 passengers, intensifying scrutiny of NATS' infrastructure resilience.
- Major hubs including Heathrow, Gatwick, and Manchester reported at least 625 cancelled flights, while Ryanair Chief Operations Officer Neal McMahon called for "NATS CEO Martin Rolfe to resign" over repeated failures.
- NATS implemented a system fix by late afternoon, though the organization warned recovery would "take some time" as airlines managed backlog and knock-on effects across the network.
- British Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is seeking "assurances that lessons will be learned" while the Civil Aviation Authority expects a full report to determine if further regulatory action is needed.
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Due to a technical breakdown, more than 1000 flights were cancelled at British airports on Tuesday. According to the tracking website Flightradar24, a total of 1055 flights to and from British airports were cancelled by the evening. "Resolving today's system problem took longer than we expected," said the British air traffic control system NATS in online service X. However, the problem has now been resolved, "and we are back to normal and do eve…
The British Air Traffic Control Service announced today, Tuesday, that more than 400 flights had been cancelled due to "technical disruption."
Several flights from and to London Heathrow, London Gatwick, London City and Manchester airports are disrupted, according to the Swiss company. The technical incident is solved, but the forecasts for Wednesday remain uncertainSwiss cancelled on Tuesday 23 flights to and from London and Manchester. These cancellations are due to disruptions of air traffic control in the United Kingdom.About 2800 passengers of the Swiss company are affected by the…
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