LONDON: More than 1,000 flights were canceled and hundreds delayed across major British airports on Sept. 8, after a technical problem at air traffic control provider NATS disrupted the country's flight data processing system, creating major travel problems and raising fresh concerns about the reliability of Britain's aviation infrastructure.
NATS said that the technical problem had been fixed and that safety had not been affected. However, the company said it would take time to clear the backlog because the disruption had created problems across the wider aviation network.
NATS CEO Martin Rolfe told that the company had not completed its investigation and did not yet know exactly what caused the technical failure. Flight-tracking website Flightradar 24 reported that 1,300 flights to and from UK airports were canceled. Another 177 flights had already been canceled for Wednesday, with almost all of those at Heathrow, Britain's largest airport.
Heathrow arriving flights had been stopped for the rest of Tuesday. Departures had resumed, but the airport warned that the disruption would continue. Earlier, Flight Aware data showed about 490 departures delayed at six airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Luton, Edinburgh and Bristol. About 525 arrivals at the same airports were canceled or delayed.
At Heathrow, 38 of 661 scheduled arrivals were canceled or could not operate, according to aviation analytics company Cirium. British Airways was the most affected airline at the airport, with 16 of its 333 scheduled departures canceled.
British Airways said the scale of the problem would have a major impact on passengers and staff. Ryanair said about 150,000 passengers were affected by delays of up to eight hours and that more than 200 flights were canceled. The airline called for NATS CEO Martin Rolfe to resign.
Wizz Air also demanded urgent changes, saying airlines, passengers and airports should not continue to face the effects of repeated system failures. Britain's Civil Aviation Authority said it expects NATS to provide a full report on Tuesday's incident. The regulator will then consider whether more action is needed to improve the reliability of the UK's air traffic control system.
The latest failure has renewed concerns about previous disruptions.
In 2024, the CAA said NATS needed to review its backup plans after a flight-plan processing problem the previous year caused widespread airport disruption.
Airlines said that incident cost them more than 100 million pounds in refunds and compensation. A separate radar-related technical problem in July last year also disrupted flights for more than four hours at major airports in London and elsewhere, including Heathrow.
