A technical failure in Britain’s air traffic control system disrupted hundreds of flights Tuesday at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted and other major airports, with delays also spreading to Ireland and parts of Europe.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed across Britain on Tuesday after the country’s air traffic control provider suffered a technical failure in its flight-processing system, disrupting operations at some of the United Kingdom’s busiest airports.
Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted were among the major hubs affected, while problems were also reported at Luton, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow.
NATS, Britain’s air traffic control provider, said engineers had identified the source of the disruption and were working to restore normal service.
“We have identified that the issue was in our flight processing system. Our engineers are on site and working urgently to resume normal operations as quickly as possible,” NATS said in a statement.
Although Britain’s airspace remained open, the provider cautioned that airlines and passengers could continue experiencing disruption even after the technical problem was addressed.
“Flights are still departing and airspace is open, but recovery will take some time,” NATS added.
Heathrow, Britain’s largest airport, said it was working with NATS as airlines attempted to manage the resulting backlog.
FlightAware data showed about 100 Heathrow flights had been canceled and another 367 delayed. Gatwick recorded approximately 250 delayed flights, representing about 31% of its scheduled operations.
Flightradar24 said arrivals and departures were being regulated at airports throughout the London flight information region because of the air traffic control problem.
The disruption extended beyond London.
Edinburgh Airport warned passengers on X that its operations could be affected, while Dublin Airport in Ireland reported delays involving both arriving and departing flights.
Airports in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Birmingham and Luton also reported cancellations or delays as the disruption spread through airline schedules.
British Airways confirmed that its operations had been affected and said it was trying to assist passengers whose travel plans had been disrupted.
“This is entirely out of our control and we’re in touch with our customers whilst our teams work to get them on their way as quickly as possible,” the airline said in a statement.
EasyJet said the NATS problem was contributing to delays across Europe, illustrating how disruptions within Britain’s tightly connected aviation network can quickly affect flights beyond the country.
Ryanair, Wizz Air and Virgin Atlantic were not immediately available for comment.
Tuesday’s outage is the latest in a series of technical incidents involving Britain’s air traffic control infrastructure.
In July 2025, a radar-related technical problem disrupted flights for more than four hours at major British airports, including Heathrow, producing widespread delays and cancellations.
An earlier failure in 2023 caused even greater disruption after NATS’ automated flight-plan processing system malfunctioned.
Britain’s aviation regulator subsequently said in 2024 that NATS needed to review its contingency arrangements for major outages.
Airline executives estimated that the 2023 disruption ultimately cost carriers more than £100 million, or about $135.49 million, in passenger refunds and compensation.
Tuesday’s latest failure again placed those contingency systems under scrutiny as airlines worked through the accumulated delays.
NATS said flights were continuing to operate and British airspace had not been closed, but warned that restoring normal schedules would take time even after engineers resolved the underlying technical problem.
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