Flight disruption after major UK air traffic outage

A major disruption hit UK air travel after a technical problem with air traffic control caused chaos at several of the country’s busiest airports. The issue, which lasted only 20 minutes, led to a huge backlog of flights, with thousands of passengers facing delays and cancellations. Airports such as Heathrow, Stansted, Manchester, and Edinburgh were all affected, and by late evening, more than 150 flights to and from the UK had been cancelled. The company responsible for air traffic control, NATS, explained that the problem was related to their radar system. They quickly switched to a backup system to resolve the issue, but in the meantime, they had to reduce the number of planes allowed in the air to make sure everyone stayed safe. The government is now working closely with NATS to understand exactly what went wrong. NATS has apologized for the disruption, which is the second major outage they have experienced in two years. The last time something similar happened was during a busy holiday weekend in August 2023, when more than 700,000 travelers were affected. This time, the technical issue occurred at the Swanwick air traffic control center in Hampshire. Engineers managed to restore the affected system fairly quickly, but the damage was already done. Many planes were grounded while the system was down, and some flights had to be diverted to other airports. Once the system was back up, NATS worked with airlines and airports to clear the backlog and get flights moving again. British Airways said it was still dealing with the aftermath and apologized to customers for the inconvenience, promising to do everything possible to get people to their destinations. EasyJet advised passengers to check for the latest updates on their flights and said they would contact anyone whose travel plans had been affected. Heathrow Airport also told passengers to check with their airlines before heading to the airport and apologized for the trouble. Birmingham and Manchester airports said they expected their schedules to return to normal the next day.

Passengers shared their experiences of the disruption. Asha, an 18-year-old from Manchester, found herself stuck on an EasyJet plane for hours. She was supposed to be on her first holiday, traveling to Amsterdam, but her flight had to turn back after just 50 minutes in the air. Some passengers wanted to get off the plane, and Asha hoped the airline would offer them some free food to make up for the delay. Another passenger, Robin Ilott, faced a delay of more than two hours at Heathrow but said he would rather be safe than risk flying when there was a problem. John Carr, who was traveling to Norway to be the best man at his brother’s wedding, had his flight cancelled and described the situation as stressful. His friend James Hedges said there was no warning before the cancellation and called the experience “rubbish.

The disruption has led to calls for an investigation. Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said the incident was “utterly unacceptable” and urged the government to find out what went wrong. Ryanair’s chief operating officer, Neal McMahon, criticized the air traffic control system and called for the resignation of NATS’ chief executive. According to flight data company Cirium, 84 departures and 71 arrivals were cancelled across UK airports, which is about 3 percent of all departures and 2 percent of all arrivals. Some flights were diverted to European airports. Heathrow had the highest number of cancellations, with 29 departures and 17 arrivals affected. Not all cancellations were directly caused by the air traffic control problem, but it was a major factor. The incident highlights how even a short technical issue can have a huge impact on air travel, causing frustration for passengers and airlines alike. Travelers are being encouraged to share their stories if they are still affected by the delays, and everyone hopes that steps will be taken to prevent similar problems in the future.