Airlines left battling to recover operations after air traffic control glitch

By Neil Lancefield, PA Transport Correspondent, and Chronicle staff

Airlines were yesterday evening attempting to recover their flight operations after a UK air traffic control (ATC) fault caused major disruption on Wednesday afternoon, including the cancellation of the evening service between Gibraltar and Gatwick.

ATC provider Nats said its engineers had “restored the system that was affected” and were “in the process of resuming normal operations”.

The technical glitch affected flights across the UK as the number of aircraft which could fly in England and Wales was restricted, the company said.

British Airways said the problem was “affecting the vast majority of our flights”, while Birmingham airport said “departing flights from many UK airports have been suspended”.

Several flights scheduled to arrive at UK airports were forced to conduct holding patterns or divert elsewhere.

The glitch left many aircraft and flight crew out of position.

Nats said the “technical issue” was at its control centre in Swanwick, Hampshire.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said: “I am aware of a technical issue which impacted Nats’ operations causing travel disruption this afternoon.”

“I have been informed systems have now been restored but continued disruption is expected, and passengers should check with individual airports for advice.”

More than 700,000 passengers suffered disruption when flights were grounded at UK airports on August 28 2023 when Nats suffered a technical glitch while processing a flight plan.