Flights grounded across Britain

Flights have been disrupted across Britain following a major technical failure in the country’s air traffic control system, leaving more than one thousand flights cancelled and tens of thousands of passengers stranded or facing delays.

The disruption affected several major airports, including London Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh, after equipment at the headquarters of the National Air Traffic Services, NATS, in Swanwick, near Southampton, reportedly failed.

NATS is responsible for managing and safely guiding aircraft across UK airspace.

The technical failure caused significant disruption to flight operations, with major London airports initially unable to accept arriving flights. Other airports across the country also operated at reduced capacity as authorities worked to restore normal services.

According to The Telegraph, NATS said the technical problem had been resolved by about 7:30 p.m., but warned that disruption would continue as airlines and airports worked to clear the backlog.

The air traffic control organisation apologised to passengers, saying recovery had taken longer than expected and that it was working to restore normal operations.

It advised travellers to continue checking directly with their airlines for updates on their flights.

The disruption has left passengers facing lengthy delays, cancellations and uncertainty.

At Gatwick Airport, passengers described spending hours waiting for information, while some travellers reported being left on aircraft for extended periods.

One passenger, Tara Singh, Chief Executive Officer of Renewable UK, said she had been stuck on a grounded plane at Gatwick for about six hours on a flight bound for Dublin.

She said passengers had been unable to leave the aircraft because buses were unavailable and were left without food or water for several hours.

Another passenger, Amanda Dick-Cleland, said her flight from Gatwick to Ibiza, scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, was cancelled.

She was offered an alternative British Airways flight, but not until Saturday, despite originally travelling to Ibiza to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

At Gatwick, another passenger, Charlene Farrell, said she was travelling with her wheelchair-bound uncle, who had recently been discharged from hospital.

She said they had received little assistance or information after their flight to Belfast was delayed.

The disruption has also affected airlines. British Airways cancelled more than one hundred flights and offered affected customers the option to move their flights without charge until Friday.

Budget airline Ryanair has criticised the handling of the outage and called for NATS Chief Executive Martin Rolfe to resign.

The latest disruption is particularly significant because it follows previous air traffic control failures in 2023 and 2025, which also caused widespread delays and cancellations across Britain.

In response to the latest incident, restrictions on night flights at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted were lifted to allow airlines to operate additional flights and reduce the backlog.

The UK Transport Secretary also said lessons would be learned from the incident and called for assurances that systems supporting the country’s aviation sector were reliable.

While NATS says the technical issue has now been resolved, passengers have been warned that normal flight operations may take time to resume fully.

Travellers have therefore been advised to check with their airlines before heading to the airport.