Hundreds of flights faced cancellations on Tuesday due to a technical glitch in the air traffic control system in the United Kingdom, causing disruptions at major airports across the country. The National Air Traffic Services (NATS) in Britain identified a problem in its flight processing system, impacting flights nationwide.
The incident raised concerns about NATS’ performance three years after a flight-plan processing error led to even more extensive disruptions. By Tuesday afternoon, NATS announced that the issue with its flight data processing system had been resolved, with assurance that safety was not compromised.
NATS acknowledged that the recovery process took longer than expected but confirmed that operations had returned to normal, with efforts underway to clear the backlog of flights. The aviation network faced challenges due to the complexity of the recovery process, as stated in an update by NATS.
CEO Martin Rolfe mentioned that an investigation into the root cause of the problem was still ongoing. Over 625 flights to and from UK airports, including London Heathrow, were canceled, affecting services provided by various airlines like British Airways, EasyJet, KLM, and Lufthansa, according to Flightradar24.
Passengers expressed frustration on social media about being stranded on the tarmac for hours before their flights were canceled, highlighting the lack of communication from airlines. Affected airports such as Stansted, City in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Gatwick, and Scotland advised passengers to check their flight status with the respective airlines.
Budget carrier EasyJet reported flight disruptions across Europe due to the system failure, leading to the inability to operate some flights. Ryanair disclosed that approximately 150,000 passengers experienced delays up to eight hours, resulting in over 200 flight cancellations, prompting calls for Rolfe’s resignation.
Calls for urgent reforms within the air traffic control sector were made by Wizz Air, emphasizing that the industry stakeholders should not bear the brunt of recurrent system failures. The UK’s aviation regulator expects NATS to provide a detailed report on the incident for further evaluation to ensure the reliability of the country’s air traffic control system.
