LONDON: A technical failure in Britain’s air traffic control system disrupted flight operations across the country, forcing the cancellation of nearly 1,000 flights and affecting thousands of domestic and international passengers.
The National Air Traffic Services, or NATS, reported a major problem with its flight processing system and said engineers were working to resolve the issue. The disruption affected operations at several airports, including London Heathrow.
Flights operated by major airlines, including British Airways, easyJet, KLM and Lufthansa, were among those affected. Although British airspace remained open and flights continued to operate, the technical problem caused significant delays and cancellations.
NATS later said it had implemented a solution and restored the flight processing system to normal operation. However, disruption continued at 15 airports and other locations as airlines and airports worked to clear a large backlog of flights caused by the outage.
The incident follows concerns raised by Britain’s aviation regulator in 2024, when it said NATS needed to strengthen its contingency arrangements after a previous failure in flight plan processing caused widespread disruption to air travel.
