More than 400 flights to and from UK airports were cancelled on Monday after a technical failure at the country’s air traffic control service disrupted departures and left thousands of passengers stranded.
By 5pm, 425 flights had been cancelled, with disruption reported at Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Belfast, Stansted, East Midlands, Jersey and other airports. According to FlightRadar24, easyJet cancelled 137 flights, British Airways 111, KLM 26, Eurowings 22 and Ryanair 21.
Some passengers travelling from London to Shanghai were reportedly diverted to Cardiff because airspace over the capital had become too congested. Gatwick and Heathrow halted departures during the disruption, while Heathrow said arriving flights were “currently not affected.”
National Air Traffic Services said the disruption was caused by difficulties with its “flight processing system” at its Swanwick control centre and warned that resolving the problem would “take some time.” “We are investigating a technical issue which is causing some disruption to flight departures. Our engineers are on site, and we will provide an update as soon as we can,” NATS said.
Heathrow Airport said: “The air traffic control service is experiencing a technical issue which is impacting departing flights at UK airports. “Arriving flights are not currently impacted. We are supporting our local NATS team in their efforts to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”
Passengers across the country reported lengthy waits on aircraft as airlines awaited clearance to depart. Jay Davis, 26, had been due to travel from Stansted to San Sebastian with his girlfriend, Katie Hastie, but said they remained on the tarmac for almost three hours.
“Thank goodness I didn’t shell out for priority boarding,” he told Metro. “We have no idea when we’re taking off. They are threatening to boot us all out but can’t guarantee what happens to our luggage. The mood is really sombre on board. The pilot keeps blaming a place called Swanwick – I’ve never heard of it before.”
Passengers on the flight were eventually taken off the aircraft and told to return the following morning. Manchester City supporters travelling to Porto for the club’s Champions League match were also among those caught up in the disruption.
At Heathrow, Nisha Lahiri, 46, said she had been sitting on a British Airways aircraft for more than two-and-a-half hours after a scheduled 2pm departure. “We boarded and have been waiting on the aircraft since then. I’m going for a family wedding in two days,” she told the BBC.
Ryanair sharply criticised NATS over the failure, with its Chief Operations Officer, Neal McMahon, describing it as “yet another UK ATC system failure” and calling on the government to “put someone in charge who can do the job.” Belfast City Airport warned passengers of “some disruption,” while Birmingham Airport said the technical problem was affecting airspace in southern Britain and having wider consequences across the country.
“There is currently an air traffic technical issue affecting airspace in the south of the UK, which is impacting a significant number of departing flights across the country,” a Birmingham Airport spokesperson said. Manchester Airport Group, which operates Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports, also confirmed that flights from all three airports had been affected.
Jersey Airport reported disruption linked to the same air traffic control problem, while travellers also reported delays at Luton, Cardiff, Exeter and Bristol. The widespread disruption left thousands of passengers facing cancelled flights, extended delays and uncertain travel plans as NATS engineers worked to resolve the technical failure.
