The UK Civil Aviation Authority has launched an independent review into the 8 September NATS outage that disrupted more than 2,000 flights across Britain, with an initial report due by the end of January 2027 and a final report due by 8 March 2027. The probe will examine the cause of the failure, the impact on passengers and the resilience of the national air traffic control system.
The review comes after a software defect in NATS’s flight data system triggered widespread delays, cancellations and diversions at major airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has asked the regulator to assess not only the immediate disruption but also how well NATS is prepared to deliver a more resilient service in future.
The CAA will also study NATS’s plans to renew and modernise critical systems, its business continuity arrangements and the extent to which earlier recommendations have been implemented. NATS said it will cooperate fully with the review. The scrutiny is the second major systems failure at the UK provider to come under regulatory examination in three years.