UK air traffic turmoil could last days, hundreds of flights cancelled after tech issue

British Airways warned travellers to only turn up to airports if their flight had been confirmed. Photo / 123rf

More than 500 flights departing and entering the UK have been cancelled following a nationwide outage of air traffic management.

The technical issue has affected the travel of thousands of travellers across Europe and threatens to have a long tail for those planning travel in the following week.

The UK National Air Traffic System (Nats) was forced to manually approve flight plans for four hours on Monday after a “technical issue” reduced air traffic flow to and from the country.

Travellers returning after the long weekend were faced with delays of up to 12 hours and cancellations as airspace controllers scrambled to fix the problem.

While the issue had been “identified and remedied” by 3.15pm, the technical meltdown came during a busy public holiday and airlines warned there would likely be knock-on effects for days.

The four-hour outage has affected not only travellers plans but crew rotas and schedules.

All flights now cancelled till 6pm & there’s a ONE HOUR long queue to leave Heathrow Terminal 5 following hundreds of cancellations and being ordered to leave the terminal by BA. Here’s the line! Isn’t being kept hostage illegal @guardian @MailOnline @Independent @SkyNews @GBNEWS pic.twitter.com/TkqIsbhsWz

— Matthew Potts (@Matthewpotts04) August 28, 2023

British Airways has waived fees for passengers travelling with them on Monday and Tuesday to change flights, and warned travellers only to come to the airport if their travel is confirmed.

An apology issued from the Nats press office said they would be helping airlines get travellers back in the air.

“We are now working closely with airlines and airports to manage the flights affected as efficiently as possible. Our engineers will be carefully monitoring the system’s performance as we return to normal operations.

“Our priority is always to ensure that every flight in the UK remains safe and we are sincerely sorry for the disruption this is causing. Please contact your airline for information on how this may affect your flight.”

Heathrow International Airport, the UK’s largest port of departure for air travel, warned that “schedules still remain significantly disrupted”.

The technical issue which limited UK air traffic today has been fixed by NATS. Schedules still remain significantly disrupted. Please only travel to the airport if your flight is confirmed to be operating. We are working hard to minimise the impacts and assist those affected.

— Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) August 28, 2023

Aviation data firm Circum predicted 3049 departures would have been affected on Monday, and a further 3054 flights were scheduled to arrive.

As of 2.30pm local time, the BBC reported 503 fights had been cancelled, which it said was equivalent to 8 per cent of all departures, and 9 per cent of incoming flights.