Backlog Disruptions Ahead after Grounding of UK Flights

DALLAS — Passengers can expect delays to continue as flights resume after a technical issue at NATS’ air traffic control centre disrupted flights to and from the UK today.

Hundreds of scheduled flights and thousands of passengers were impacted by an air traffic control issue, delaying departures at some of the UK’s busiest airports today. 

That said, departures have resumed after the technical issue grounded flights for hours, with Heathrow (LHR), Gatwick (LGW), Manchester (MAN), and Edinburgh (EDI) all reporting disruption and ongoing delays during the day.

While several departing flights were grounded, incoming flights also had to be cancelled, resulting in major flight disruptions into and out of the United Kingdom today. 

According to data provided by aviation analytics platform Cirum, 67 flight departures had been cancelled across the UK and 55 flight arrivals had been cancelled, up to 19:30 today. London Heathrow (LHR) had seen the highest number of cancelled flights - 24 outbound and 14 inbound flights in total.

The UK’s air traffic services provider, NATS, has confirmed that its systems are now fully operational and that flights have resumed. However, clearing the backlog of delayed flights will take time.

A spokesperson for the UK’s Department for Transport said, "While passengers should continue to check with individual airports for advice, NATS have confirmed their systems are now fully operational and flights are returning to normal.”

Five hours ago, LGW stated via X: ”A technical issue impacting NATS that affected outbound flights across the UK has now been resolved. As a result, there are some delays at London Gatwick while operations resume.”

Clearing the Backlog

The glitch has indeed led to a significant backlog in scheduled flights operating to, from, and within the United Kingdom. This can often take several hours or even days to clear. 

While the disruption caused by today’s issue is expected to take some time to clear, passengers are urged to be patient. Airlines whose flights have been affected have requested passengers to check whether their flights will be operating. 

British Airways (BA), whose flights were impacted, apologised to passengers and said that it was working to get its services back to normal.

“Like all airlines, we are dealing with the impact of an Air Traffic Control issue that is affecting the vast majority of our flights. Whilst this is entirely outside of our control, we want to apologise to our customers for any inconvenience and assure them that our teams are working hard to get their journeys back on track as quickly as possible.” BA said in a statement.

Budget carrier easyJet (U2) has requested passengers to check online to verify whether their flights are operating.

“We are advising customers travelling this evening to check our Flight Tracker for the most up to date information on their flight and are contacting all impacted customers directly. While this is outside of our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience,” easyJet said in a statement.

Low-cost carrier Ryanair (FR), which today’s disruptions have also impacted, has called for the head of NATS to resign over today’s air traffic control blunder.