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Several of the UK's busiest airports experienced major disruption on Tuesday after a technical failure affected the flight data-processing system operated by air traffic control services provider NATS.
According to Flightradar24, about 1,300 flights to and from UK airports were cancelled. Another 177 cancellations were recorded for Wednesday, almost all involving London's Heathrow Airport.
NATS said the problem was resolved at 18:34 Greenwich Mean Time and stressed that “safety was not compromised.” However, delays and the backlog of flights continued to affect operations after the system was restored.
Disruption worsens at Heathrow
Heathrow, the UK's largest airport, suspended arriving flights for the rest of Tuesday. Although flights were later reported to have resumed, the airport warned passengers that disruption would continue as airlines worked to operate delayed services.
According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, British Airways was among the airlines worst affected at Heathrow. The carrier cancelled 16 of its 333 scheduled flights and said the disruption would have a “significant knock-on effect” on passengers and staff.
Major delays and cancellations were also recorded at Gatwick, London City, Luton, Edinburgh and Bristol airports.
Airlines criticise NATS
The disruption prompted strong criticism of NATS from airlines. Ryanair said about 150,000 passengers had been affected by delays of up to eight hours and that it had cancelled more than 200 flights.
The airline called for NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign. Ryanair Chief Operating Officer Neal McMahon accused NATS of repeated failures and asked how many more such incidents passengers would have to endure.
Wizz Air also called for urgent reform. The airline said a critical national infrastructure service should not repeatedly bring the air transport system to a standstill and that NATS was not fit for purpose in its current form.
NATS launches investigation
NATS said its flight data-processing system had been affected by the failure and that restoring normal operations had taken longer than expected. The company said the issue had been resolved, operations were continuing normally and efforts were under way to clear the backlog of flights.
NATS later described the recovery process as “highly complex” and said the problem had created difficulties across the wider aviation network. Martin Rolfe told Sky News that investigators had not yet established the exact cause of the failure.
Tuesday's incident recalled a failure three years ago in NATS's flight plan-processing system that paralysed much of the UK's air transport network. The 2023 incident was reported to have cost airlines more than £100 million, including refunds and compensation payments.
The UK's Civil Aviation Authority said in 2024 that NATS should review its contingency plans following that incident. The regulator is awaiting a full report on the latest failure before deciding whether additional measures are needed to improve the reliability of the air traffic control system.
