UK Airports Face Second Day Of Disruption After Air Traffic Control Failure

UK Airports Face Second Day of Disruption After Air Traffic Control Failure Major disruption continued at airports across the United Kingdom on Wednesday after a technical failure in the country’s air traffic control system caused widespread flight cancellations and delays. The disruption began on Tuesday after National Air Traffic Services NATS, which manages air traffic control across the UK, experienced a fault in its flight-processing system. The technical problem affected some of Britain’s busiest airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted, Birmingham, Edinburgh and London City Airport, leaving thousands of passengers stranded or facing lengthy delays.More than 1,000 flights were cancelled on Tuesday, while hundreds more were delayed. Aviation data showed that the disruption was continuing into Wednesday as airlines struggled to reposition aircraft and crews and clear the backlog created by the outage. At Heathrow, one of Europe’s busiest aviation hubs, operations began recovering but the airport warned passengers that significant knock-on effects could continue. Heathrow advised travellers to check directly with their airlines and only travel to the airport if their flights had been confirmed. NATS said the technical issue had been resolved and that its systems were operating normally. However, the air traffic control provider acknowledged that recovering from the failure had been complex and that it would take time for the wider aviation network to return to normal. The disruption has also affected airlines operating across Europe. British Airways cancelled or diverted more than 100 flights, while Ryanair and easyJet reported significant impacts on passengers and services. Ryanair has sharply criticised NATS and called for Chief Executive Martin Rolfe to resign. The incident has renewed concerns over the reliability and resilience of Britain’s air traffic control infrastructure. It follows previous technical problems that have caused widespread disruption to UK aviation in recent years. UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has summoned the NATS chief executive to explain the failure, while the Civil Aviation Authority is expected to examine a full report into what happened and whether additional measures are needed to strengthen the system. NATS has ruled out a cyberattack and said the incident originated in its flight-processing system. The organisation has yet to provide a complete explanation of what caused the technical failure. For passengers, however, the immediate concern remains the continuing disruption, with hundreds of flights still affected as airlines work to restore normal schedules. Travellers have been urged to check their flight status with their airline before heading to the airport and to prepare for possible delays or cancellations.