Flights across parts of the UK have been disrupted after a technical issue at Nats’ Prestwick air traffic control centre in Scotland caused delays and cancellations.
Nats said the problem was a “connectivity issue” affecting part of its systems network and was unrelated to a separate outage earlier this month. The issue has since been fixed, but passengers are still facing delays as operations return to normal.
Airports including Glasgow, Aberdeen, Manchester, Newcastle, Bristol, Belfast City, London City, Luton and Gatwick reported varying levels of disruption.
Nats said air traffic restrictions were introduced to maintain safety while engineers investigated the problem. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said systems were resuming but warned that delays could continue while they reset.
The latest disruption comes less than two weeks after a separate failure on 8 September, when a software defect led to around 2,000 cancelled flights and affected hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Airlines call for action
Airlines have renewed criticism of the UK’s air traffic control infrastructure following the latest incident.
Ryanair called for Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign, while Jet2 chief executive Steve Heapy called for “urgent and accountable” action to strengthen the UK’s air traffic control system.
Airlines also said passengers and airlines “deserve better”, arguing that the country’s air traffic control infrastructure must be resilient enough to cope with disruptions.
Nats said it takes service interruptions seriously and that its first priority is ensuring safety.
Passengers face cancelled trips
The disruption has left travellers facing missed connections, cancelled holidays and postponed business meetings.
Nicole McCloskey from Kilmarnock was due to fly to Paris with her family for a four-night Disneyland trip, but their Glasgow flight was cancelled. The family rebooked another flight and hoped to continue with the holiday, even if it meant a shorter stay.
Other passengers reported being stranded at airports, while business travellers said they faced additional costs and missed meetings and conferences.
Data from aviation analytics company Cirium showed 35 UK departures had been cancelled or had not operated by early Monday afternoon, while 37 of 3,048 scheduled arrivals had also been cancelled or had not flown. Cirium warned that operational performance could deteriorate as the day progressed.
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