UK Airport Chaos Continues After Air Traffic Control System Failure

Disruptions at UK airports persisted on Wednesday, following a major failure in the air traffic control system that affected over 1,000 flights on Tuesday, including at least two from Israel. The technical issue, caused by a fault in the system operated by service provider Nats, impacted several airports in the UK and Ireland, particularly those in the London area.

Nats announced Wednesday evening that the system failure had been repaired. However, earlier in the day, the company had warned that restoring full operations would take longer than anticipated. Martin Rolfe, the CEO of Nats, told the BBC that the incident caused significant congestion of flights and passengers, and he apologized for the disruptions. Rolfe estimated the system was down for approximately six hours, though he was not certain of the exact duration.

Ryanair reported that over 65,000 of its passengers experienced delays of up to eight hours. British Airways also cautioned that the outage would have significant, ongoing effects on flight schedules. While Bristol Airport confirmed that flights had resumed normal operations, Heathrow Airport in London stated that landings were halted Tuesday as a safety precaution, though departures resumed later. Both Heathrow and other airports like Manchester and East Midlands warned that disruptions might continue into the evening.

Rolfe addressed criticism by stating that while the incident was undesirable, Nats is prepared for such situations. He emphasized that the immediate priority is completing the recovery process, alongside a full investigation into the cause of the failure. Nats is currently working to clear the backlog and return to normal operations.