Hundreds of flights at major United Kingdom airports, including London’s Heathrow and Gatwick, have been cancelled and hundreds more delayed due to a technical fault at the National Air Traffic Services (NATS). The IT malfunction occurred on September 8, 2026, three years after a previous flight-plan processing failure at NATS caused significant disruption. NATS issued an apology to passengers affected by the delays and confirmed that the issue with its flight data processing system had been resolved. They stated, "Recovery from today’s system issue has taken longer than we had hoped. Our system issue is now resolved, we are operating normally and working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights." Airlines have called for the resignation of NATS CEO Martin Rolfe, questioning the effectiveness of the UK’s air traffic control system and urging government intervention. Ryanair reported that over 65,000 passengers were impacted by delays of up to eight hours and had cancelled more than 50 flights. Ryanair’s Chief Operations Officer, Neal McMahon, criticized NATS, stating, "despite promises, reports and assurances that they would fix the systems, once again NATS, under Martin Rolfe’s leadership have failed UK travellers and have failed airlines which are trying to get their passengers to and from the UK." Flight-tracking platform FlightAware indicated that approximately 490 departures were delayed at six airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Luton, Edinburgh, and Bristol as of 15:18 GMT. Additionally, about 525 arrivals at those airports were either cancelled or delayed. Aviation analyst John Strickland noted that even a short outage can have severe consequences, as delays can quickly cascade through tightly scheduled airline networks. The UK Civil Aviation Authority stated it expects NATS to provide a full report on the system failure and will consider whether reforms are necessary to ensure the reliability of the UK’s air traffic control system.
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UK Air Traffic Control Glitch Causes Flight Disruptions
A technical fault at the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) led to the cancellation and delay of hundreds of flights at major UK airports on September 8, 2026. NATS has apologized for the disruption, which affected over 65,000 Ryanair passengers, and confirmed that the issue has been resolved. The UK Civil Aviation Authority is expecting a report on the incident to determine if reforms are needed.
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Hundreds of flights delayed, cancelled after UK air traffic control glitch
UK Air Traffic Control Glitch Causes Flight Disruptions