A technical fault at UK air traffic control provider NATS disrupted flights across the country on Tuesday and left Heathrow and Gatwick dealing with delays and cancellations into Wednesday. More than 1,000 flights were grounded, with the impact spreading to major airports including Manchester, Stansted, Birmingham, London City, Luton, Edinburgh and Bristol.
NATS traced the problem to its flight-processing system and later restored normal operations, but recovery continued to take time as airlines repositioned aircraft and crews. Heathrow resumed departures after suspending arrivals for part of Tuesday, while Gatwick also returned to operation, warning that full normalisation would not be immediate.
Cancellation totals varied as the situation evolved. Reuters reported about 1,300 cancellations to and from UK airports on Tuesday, plus 177 more already cancelled for Wednesday, almost all at Heathrow. BBC coverage put the two-day total at nearly 2,000, reflecting the scale of knock-on disruption across the network and the backlog building at the country’s largest airports.