A technical malfunction at Nats, Britain’s air traffic control services provider, triggered widespread disruption across the country’s aviation network on Tuesday. The fault emerged around 1pm and affected departing flights at major UK airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, and Stansted. The system failure persisted for approximately four hours until Nats announced the issue had been resolved at 4:40pm. By that time, the majority of flights scheduled to depart remained grounded.
The cascading effects of the outage extended through Tuesday evening and into Wednesday, with carriers including British Airways, Ryanair, and easyJet forced to cancel numerous flights and rebook passengers. Ryanair reported more than 65,000 delayed passengers and 50 cancelled flights, while British Airways cancelled or diverted over 100 flights, leaving tens of thousands of customers stranded. At least 177 flights scheduled for Wednesday were cancelled, predominantly at London Heathrow. The disruption also affected incoming traffic to much of southern England, and knock-on effects spread across the European aviation network, according to Eurocontrol, the European airspace coordinator.
Nats provides air traffic control services to 15 UK airports and confirmed the breakdown was caused by a fault in its flight processing system. The company stated the issue was distinct from previous outages that occurred in 2023 and 2025. Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe expressed sympathy for affected passengers and stated the organization was working overnight with airlines and airports to facilitate recovery and resume normal operations.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander acknowledged the disruption and stated she was seeking assurances that lessons would be learned and systems improved. Rolfe was scheduled to brief the transport secretary on Wednesday. However, the incident reignited calls from airlines for systemic changes at Nats, with Ryanair reiterating demands for leadership changes and other carriers questioning whether the organization remained fit for purpose as critical national infrastructure.
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