UK Airports Face Ongoing Travel Chaos Following Major Air Traffic Control Glitch

Days of disruption are expected for travellers using UK airports after a technical issue in the air traffic control system grounded hundreds of flights. The issue which emerged on Tuesday afternoon has been resolved, but the knock-on effect means further flights were delayed or cancelled.

Heathrow, Gatwick, and other major hubs were affected, with more than 1,000 flights impacted by the four-hour outage. Martin Rolfe, the boss of the National Air Traffic Services, apologised for the disruption, but faced calls to resign after the third major breakdown of the system during his decade-long tenure. He has been summoned by Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander to explain the situation amid concerns that the infrastructure and technology are not up to scratch.

"I am seeking assurances that lessons will be learned and systems that support aviation are up to the job," Ms Alexander said on X. Mr Rolfe stated on Wednesday that a cyberattack had been ruled out, but it was too early to say what the true cause was. He noted it would not be a repeat of previous problems, but “something we’ve never seen in 50 years of operation.”

"We will be doing a very thorough and full investigation," Mr Rolfe told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. "Not to take away any of the frustrations and disappointments from the people who haven’t been able to travel, but we do have one of the best systems and one of the best services in the world."

So far on Wednesday morning, 153 flights have been cancelled, including 55 departures and 98 arrivals, according to data compiled by Cirium. That compares with more than 1,750 aborted services on Tuesday. The spillover into Wednesday shows the complexity involved in restarting operations after the severe outage, with about 8,000 flights using the UK air space on average each day.

Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, said that while operations are recovering, travellers should expect knock-on impacts as aircraft and crew reposition. Gatwick Airport stated that “we still anticipate that it will take time for our operations to fully return to normal.” Ryanair said around 150,000 of its passengers had been affected on Tuesday and it cancelled more than 200 flights, while British Airways said it had cancelled or diverted 100 flights.

Tuesday’s outage was related to a technical issue at NATS, a public-private company based in Swanwick, Hampshire, that oversees air traffic control in the UK. Ryanair Holdings Plc and Wizz Air Holdings Plc have repeatedly called for Mr Rolfe to resign, with Yvonne Moynihan, managing director of Wizz Air, questioning the resilience of the system after three major failures.