LONDON: A major technical failure at the UK’s air traffic control system disrupted over 120 flights on Wednesday, triggering cancellations and delays during peak summer travel.
The National Air Traffic Services (NATS) confirmed the glitch forced temporary airspace restrictions before being resolved.
Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, along with Gatwick and Edinburgh, faced significant disruptions. Aviation data firm Cirium reported 67 departures and 55 arrivals cancelled by evening, with additional flights diverted.
The incident echoed NATS’s 2023 system collapse, which stranded thousands. Airline executives expressed outrage, with Ryanair CEO Neal McMahon demanding NATS chief Martin Rolfe’s resignation.
“It is outrageous that passengers are once again being hit with delays and disruption,“ McMahon said.
“No lessons have been learned since the August 2023 outage.”
EasyJet CEO David Morgan called the recurrence “extremely disappointing,“ urging NATS to address systemic flaws.
The UK Department for Transport stated it was investigating the Swanwick control centre failure. NATS restored operations by 5:00 PM GMT, but passenger frustration lingered. – AFP
