Air travel across the United Kingdom was temporarily disrupted on Wednesday following a technical issue at the National Air Traffic Services (NATS), which impacted operations at key airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, and Edinburgh.
The glitch halted several flight departures and caused widespread delays, particularly at some of the country’s busiest airports. NATS later confirmed via a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the problem had been resolved, stating: “Our systems are fully operational and air traffic capacity is returning to normal.” The agency apologised for the disruption and said it was working with airlines and airport authorities to clear the backlog safely.
Heathrow Airport, the UK’s largest and one of Europe’s busiest aviation hubs, announced that flight operations had resumed but urged passengers to verify their flight status with airlines before heading to the airport. Similar warnings were issued by Gatwick, Edinburgh, and London City airports.
While the exact length of the system outage was not disclosed, the disruption raised fresh concerns about the robustness of the UK’s air traffic infrastructure. It comes less than a year after a major failure in August 2023 involving the automatic flight plan processing system, which led to widespread delays and cost airlines over £100 million in refunds and compensation.
In the aftermath of the 2023 incident, the UK Civil Aviation Authority had urged NATS to improve its contingency planning. Wednesday’s glitch may intensify calls for a more thorough review of system safeguards to prevent future service breakdowns.
