A technical issue at NATS’ Prestwick air traffic control centre in Scotland disrupted flights across parts of the UK on Monday, forcing restrictions on traffic heading north and departures from Scottish airports before engineers restored systems and began lifting curbs. The incident triggered delays and cancellations at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast, Manchester and Liverpool, as well as several airports in the Highlands and Islands.
NATS used temporary air traffic regulations to manage demand while the fault was investigated, with safety cited as the reason for the curbs. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the problem had been fixed and systems were resuming. The disruption spread across Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England, affecting both inbound and outbound services and creating knock-on delays through the morning.
The event came less than two weeks after a separate NATS outage, which the air traffic provider has described as unrelated. The latest disruption renewed concerns about resilience in the UK air traffic network, particularly during periods of high operational pressure when even short-lived technical problems can ripple quickly through multiple airports and airline schedules.