Air passengers across the UK and Ireland are facing continued disruption after a technical failure at the UK’s air traffic control provider caused widespread flight cancellations and delays.
Martin Rolfe, chief executive of NATS, said the technical problem had been resolved and ruled out a cyber attack as the cause. He said a detailed investigation would examine what happened and why the failure occurred.
“I don’t believe we’ve ever seen an incident happen more than once, so this will be something different that we’ve never seen in 50 years of operation,” Rolfe told BBC Radio 4.
He apologised to passengers affected by the disruption and said the immediate priority had been restoring the system safely. NATS is responsible for air traffic control services at 15 UK airports.
Flight tracking website Flightradar24 said around 1,300 flights to and from UK airports were cancelled on the day of the incident. Heathrow recorded 246 cancellations by 6am the following morning, while Gatwick reported 33.
Airlines warned that the disruption would continue as aircraft and crews were left out of position. Ryanair cancelled 260 flights and chief executive Michael O’Leary estimated the immediate financial impact at between £2.5 million and £3 million. He said further cancellations were expected as crews and aircraft were repositioned.
British Airways said it had cancelled or diverted more than 100 flights, affecting tens of thousands of passengers.
The disruption also spread across Ireland, where around 90 flights to and from Dublin Airport were cancelled. Dublin Airport said it expected close to a full schedule of flights to operate the following day, although some delays could continue because of the wider disruption.
Graeme McQueen of daa, which operates Dublin Airport, advised passengers to monitor airline websites, mobile applications and emails for updates. He said airlines including Ryanair, Emerald Airlines and Aer Lingus had worked to reposition aircraft for the morning schedule.
At Cork Airport, nine flights were cancelled during the disruption, including five arrivals and four departures. Airport officials said normal operations had resumed.
Shannon Airport also reported that most scheduled services were operating normally, although several flights had been affected as schedules recovered.
The incident has drawn criticism from airlines. Ryanair Chief Operating Officer Neal McMahon called for Rolfe to resign, accusing NATS of failing to prevent another major disruption following the company’s previous system failure in 2023.
Passengers described chaotic scenes at affected airports. One traveller at Gatwick said she spent three hours on the runway before being allowed to leave the aircraft after her flight to Ireland was cancelled.
Travel journalist Simon Calder warned that the knock-on effects could remain severe as airlines work to return aircraft and crews to their scheduled locations.
NATS said its attention would now turn to establishing the precise cause of the failure and preventing a repeat of the incident.
