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3d ago

NATS Says Flight System Fixed as UK Airports Face Hours‑long Recovery

The aviation regulator has demanded a full incident report after airlines warned that delays and cancellations will persist while aircraft and crew are repositioned.

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Delayed passengers queue with their luggage at Heathrow airport, west London, on September 8, after a major glitch impacted the UK's largest national air traffic control provider.
Passengers walk through Terminal 5 of London Heathrow Airport after flights were cancelled because of a technical issue in Britain's air traffic control system Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, in London. (Ellie Crabbe/PA via AP)

Overview

  • A technical fault in National Air Traffic Services' flight‑processing system disrupted departures on Tuesday and forced widespread regulation of UK flights before engineers implemented a fix that NATS said restored operations in the evening.
  • Flight‑tracking services and airlines reported more than 1,000 cancellations and tens of thousands of passengers disrupted, with Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham among the worst affected.
  • Although NATS says the system is operating normally, airlines and airports warn recovery will take many hours and that further cancellations and delays could continue into Wednesday as aircraft and crews are moved back into place.
  • NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe said the root cause is still under investigation, the Civil Aviation Authority has asked for a formal report, and some carriers have demanded accountability for the repeated control‑system failures.
  • The interruption renewed scrutiny of NATS' contingency arrangements following similar flight‑processing and radar problems in recent years and left passengers facing long waits, missed connections and rebooking and compensation processes.