UK flights resume after air traffic control service ‘technical problem’ triggers vacation hold-ups

The U.K.’s air traffic control service service provider stated Monday that it had “identified and remedied” an earlier technical problem which saw flights throughout the nation interfered with.

In an afternoon upgrade, the National Air Traffic Service stated that it was now dealing with airline companies and airports to handle the afflicted flights following cautions that guests might deal with hourslong hold-ups.

“We have identified and remedied the technical issue affecting our flight planning system this morning. We are now working closely with airlines and airports to manage the flights affected as efficiently as possible,” NATS stated in a declaration released at 3: 15 p.m. London time.

“Our engineers will be carefully monitoring the system’s performance as we return to normal operations,” it included.

NATS did not supply additional information on the reason for the problem or what flight constraints stayed in location.

Following the statement that the problem had actually been corrected, a representative for London’s Heathrow Airport stated that flight schedules will stay “significantly disrupted” for the remainder of the day and advised guests to only travel to the airport if their flight is validated as still running.

British Airways stated that its schedule had actually been “severely disrupted” by the interruption and kept in mind that lots of flights– especially brief haul– might no longer be running Monday.

The upgrade follows earlier statements from NATS, in which it stated that a technical fault had actually interrupted its capability to instantly process flight strategies which air traffic control service was rather being dealt with by hand.

“We are currently experiencing a technical issue and have applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety,” NATS stated in a statement issued at 12.10 p.m. “Engineers are working to find and fix the fault.”

In an update issued at 2.20 p.m., NATS said that the fault remained unresolved and that air traffic control was being handled manually for the time being.

“This morning’s technical issue is affecting our ability to automatically process flight plans. Until our engineers have resolved this, flight plans are being input manually which means we cannot process them at the same volume, hence we have applied traffic flow restrictions,” it said.

NATS first announced the disruption at 12.10 p.m. and clarified that “UK airspace is not closed” following reports on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.

The issue with air traffic control was announced earlier by Scottish airline Loganair, which said on X that there was a “network-wide failure of UK air traffic control computer systems this morning.”

Passengers were alerted that they might deal with extreme hold-ups. It comes throughout the U.K.’s hectic bank vacation travel duration, with lots of people returning from summer season vacations.

Flight tracking site Flight radar24 shared an image on X of live air traffic information at 12: 35 p.m. London time.

In an accompanying declaration, it stated that U.K. airports, consisting of Heathrow, seem “significantly limiting departures,” although arrivals continue. It included that all of its most tracked flights are presently London arrivals.

Gatwick Airport, London’s second-largest airport, said Monday afternoon that it was “seeing hold-ups, and [flight] cancellations,” while Luton Airport said the air traffic control service problem was “affecting UK airspace, resulting in disruption to flights.”

Meanwhile, Stansted Airport said it was “aware of a nationwide air traffic control issue that is affecting flights in and out of airports across the country.”