Trending 
A technical fault within the UK’s air traffic control system caused widespread travel disruption at several airports on Wednesday, with more than 120 flights cancelled and others diverted, triggering strong criticism from airline executives.
The problem originated at NATS, the UK’s air traffic control provider, which was forced to limit the number of aircraft permitted in London’s airspace while the issue was addressed. Although the glitch was resolved swiftly, its impact rippled through major airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick and Edinburgh.
By 7:30 pm (1830 GMT), 67 outbound flights and 55 inbound services had been cancelled, according to aviation data company Cirium. Several additional flights were diverted mid-journey.
The disruption came during one of the busiest periods of the year for UK airports, as travellers head abroad during the peak summer holiday season.
Airline leaders expressed outrage, pointing to last year’s severe system failure—also involving NATS—which left thousands of passengers stranded in what was the worst incident in nearly a decade.
Ryanair’s Chief Operating Officer, Neal McMahon, demanded the resignation of NATS CEO Martin Rolfe, calling the latest failure “outrageous” and claiming lessons had not been learned since the major outage in August 2023.
EasyJet’s COO David Morgan also voiced his frustration, calling the glitch “extremely disappointing” and expressing concern over the reliability of NATS’s systems during the high-demand travel season.
The Department for Transport confirmed it is working closely with NATS to investigate the cause of the disruption and evaluate the effectiveness of current contingency measures.
NATS stated the issue originated at its Swanwick control centre in southwest England. Initial reports of the problem emerged around 4:00 pm (1500 GMT), and within an hour, the service announced that the fault had been fixed and departures were once again underway across all UK airports.
