LONDON: Flights at British airports across the United Kingdom began operating again early Wednesday, Sept. 9, after a major air traffic control breakdown. However, airports warned that it could take some time for flight schedules to return to normal because the disruption had left many planes and crew members in different locations.
As flights started again, Heathrow Airport near London asked passengers to contact their airlines before traveling to the airport. The airport said flight schedules had changed because of the problems that occurred Tuesday.
"We expect the disruption to continue as aircraft and crew are moved back into position," the airport said in a statement.
The airport also acknowledged the frustration caused by the disruption and said it was working with the local NATS air traffic control team and airline companies to restore normal flight operations as quickly as possible.
More than 1,000 flights were canceled and hundreds delayed across major UK airports on Sept. 8, after a technical problem at air traffic control provider NATS disrupted the country's flight data processing system, creating major travel problems and raising fresh concerns about the reliability of Britain's aviation infrastructure.
NATS company said it would take time to clear the backlog because the disruption had created problems across the wider aviation network.
NATS CEO Martin Rolfe told that the company had not completed its investigation and did not yet know exactly what caused the technical failure. Flight-tracking website Flightradar 24 reported that 1,300 flights to and from UK airports were canceled. Another 177 flights had already been canceled for Wednesday, with almost all of those at Heathrow, Britain's largest airport.
Heathrow arriving flights had been stopped for the rest of Tuesday. Departures had resumed, but the airport warned that the disruption would continue. Earlier, Flight Aware data showed about 490 departures delayed at six airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Luton, Edinburgh and Bristol. About 525 arrivals at the same airports were canceled or delayed.
At Heathrow, 38 of 661 scheduled arrivals were canceled or could not operate, according to aviation analytics company Cirium. British Airways was the most affected airline at the airport, with 16 of its 333 scheduled departures canceled.
British Airways said the scale of the problem would have a major impact on passengers and staff. Ryanair said about 150,000 passengers were affected by delays of up to eight hours and that more than 200 flights were canceled. The airline called for NATS CEO Martin Rolfe to resign.
Wizz Air also demanded urgent changes, saying airlines, passengers and airports should not continue to face the effects of repeated system failures. Britain's Civil Aviation Authority said it expects NATS to provide a full report on Tuesday's incident. The regulator will then consider whether more action is needed to improve the reliability of the UK's air traffic control system.
The latest failure has renewed concerns about previous disruptions.
In 2024, the CAA said NATS needed to review its backup plans after a flight-plan processing problem the previous year caused widespread airport disruption.
Airlines said that incident cost them more than 100 million pounds in refunds and compensation. A separate radar-related technical problem in July last year also disrupted flights for more than four hours at major airports in London and elsewhere, including Heathrow.
