DistantNews
Support us
🇸🇬 Singapore /Energy & Infrastructure

Air traffic control issue disrupts flights at major UK airports

From CNA · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Named sources Outcome reported
  • A technical fault at Britain's air traffic control provider NATS disrupted nearly 1,000 flights at major UK airports, including Heathrow, on Tuesday.
  • NATS said the flight data processing issue had been resolved, but warned that clearing the backlog would take time.
  • The disruption renewed scrutiny of Britain's aviation infrastructure after a larger flight-plan processing failure three years ago.

A technical failure at Britain’s air traffic control provider NATS disrupted nearly 1,000 flights on Tuesday, forcing cancellations and delays at major airports and renewing questions about the resilience of the country’s aviation system.

NATS said the problem affected its flight data processing system and was resolved at 7:34 p.m. local time. It said safety had not been compromised, but warned that restoring normal operations and clearing the backlog would take time. “Recovery from today’s system issue has taken longer than we had hoped,” NATS said. “Our system issue is now resolved, we are operating normally and working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights.”

Recovery from today’s system issue has taken longer than we had hoped. Our system issue is now resolved, we are operating normally and working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights.

· NATSThe air traffic control provider announced that the technical fault had been resolved while warning of continuing delays.

The provider later said the recovery had been complex and had created difficulties across the aviation network. Chief Executive Martin Rolfe told Sky News that NATS had not completed its investigation and did not yet know exactly what had caused the failure. “We don’t have an idea yet of exactly what went wrong,” he said.

Heathrow suspended arrivals for the rest of Tuesday, although departures had resumed, and warned that disruption would continue. Flight-tracking data showed about 490 delayed departures at Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Luton, Edinburgh and Bristol by 3:18 p.m. A further 525 arrivals at those airports had been cancelled or delayed.

We don’t have an idea yet of exactly what went wrong.

· Martin RolfeThe NATS chief executive said the investigation into the technical failure was not complete.

At Heathrow, aviation analytics company Cirium recorded 38 cancelled or non-operating arrivals out of 661 scheduled services. British Airways, the airport’s most affected carrier, cancelled 16 of 333 scheduled departures. “The severity of the issue means there will be a significant knock-on impact for customers and colleagues,” the airline said.

The incident revived scrutiny of NATS three years after a flight-plan processing failure caused even wider disruption. Airlines questioned whether Britain’s air traffic control system was fit for purpose as passengers waited for information in departure halls.

The severity of the issue means there will be a significant knock-on impact for customers and colleagues.

· British AirwaysThe airline warned that the disruption would continue to affect passengers and staff.
About this summary

Originally published by CNA. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog