Nearly 2,000 flights were affected on Tuesday and Wednesday in the United Kingdom by a malfunction in the air traffic control system. Around 1,300 flights were canceled on Tuesday alone, as planes were unable to take off for several hours.
Disruptions continued on Wednesday as aircraft and airline crews remained at airports other than where they were supposed to be.
At least 177 flights scheduled for Wednesday had already been canceled, almost all at Heathrow Airport, according to data from Flightradar24 cited by The Guardian.
### Flights London–Bucharest canceled
The malfunction also affected air connections between the UK and Romania. Several flights scheduled on Wednesday between Bucharest and British airports were canceled or experienced delays, according to Economedia.
British Airways flights BA878 and BA874 from Heathrow to Bucharest, as well as Wizz Air Malta flight W43008 from Luton, were canceled. Wizz Air Malta’s W43012 flight from Liverpool arrived late.
Conversely, British Airways canceled both scheduled flights from Bucharest to Heathrow on Wednesday: BA879, scheduled for 08:15, and BA875, scheduled for 16:15.
### Malfunction blocked major British airports
Problems began on Tuesday around 13:00 local time and affected some of the UK’s largest airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, and Stansted. Flights from airports in Edinburgh, Belfast, Bristol, Luton, and London City were also disrupted.
NATS, the company providing air traffic control services at 15 British airports, announced that the malfunction occurred in its flight processing system.
The system was fixed around 16:40, after nearly four hours, but the return to normal took longer than authorities had anticipated.
„It was a very complex recovery process, which created difficulties for the entire air network, and it will take time for these to be overcome,” NATS stated.
The company clarified that there were no indications that the system had been the target of a cyberattack.
### Passengers stranded for hours on planes
Thousands of passengers were stranded in terminals or on board planes. Some aircraft were unable to take off, and passengers were kept on the runway for hours before flights were canceled.
A Sky News journalist reported being stuck for almost nine hours on a plane at Heathrow before passengers were allowed to disembark. Applications and websites used for rescheduling flights began to fail, while hotels near the airport quickly filled up.
Tensions escalated on a Ryanair plane after passengers complained of not receiving enough water and threatened to disembark on their own. The aircraft’s staff called the police, according to Sky News.
Heathrow resumed departures on Tuesday evening but suspended all arrivals for the rest of the night to manage the remaining aircraft and stranded passengers.
### Airlines demand change in NATS leadership
British Airways canceled or diverted over 100 flights and warned that disruptions would continue at least until Wednesday. The company allowed affected passengers to reschedule their trips for free until Friday.
Ryanair announced that over 65,000 of its passengers were affected by delays of up to eight hours and that over 50 flights were canceled. The Irish company demanded the resignation of NATS CEO Martin Rolfe, accusing the management of not strengthening systems after the serious incident in 2023.
Wizz Air also called for an urgent overhaul of the British operator. „A critical national infrastructure provider should not repeatedly block the entire aviation system. In its current form, NATS simply cannot fulfill its role,” the company stated, as cited by Reuters.
Martin Rolfe apologized and stated that he takes „full responsibility,” but did not directly respond when asked if he would resign.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority requested a full report from NATS and will assess whether additional measures are necessary to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the air traffic control system.
G.P.