UK flights cancelled after air traffic control technical fault

dailystar.co.uk — September 8, 2026 at 06:01 PM UTC

More than 400 flights were cancelled across UK airports on Tuesday after air traffic control provider Nats reported a technical issue in its flight processing system, causing severe disruption at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, and Birmingham. Passengers at Stansted described dangerously overcrowded gates as information boards continued directing travellers to departures. Nats said engineers were working urgently to fix the problem, later announcing a fix had been implemented and the system was starting to recover, though recovery would take time. Flight monitoring site Flightradar24 reported 425 flights axed by 5pm, with 352 Heathrow departures delayed, alongside 281 at Gatwick, 249 at Manchester, and 101 at Birmingham. EasyJet offered affected customers free transfers, refunds, and hotel accommodation. The disruption follows previous Nats failures, including a radar-related issue in July that grounded flights and a technical glitch in August 2023 affecting over 700,000 passengers. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander apologised for the frustration, while airports urged passengers to check with airlines for the latest information.

With a significance score of 1.1, this news ranks in the top 56% of today's 33172 analyzed articles.

Get summaries of news with significance over 5.5 (usually ~10 stories per week). Read by 10,000+ subscribers:

Most significant articles on this story:

[2.0]

U.K. flight chaos: 400 cancellations after air traffic control failure (latimes.com)

Link Source [$]

[1.7]

UK flights resume after air traffic control failure (yle.fi)

Link Source (Iloko)

[1.6]

Ryanair calls for NATS CEO to quit after UK air traffic control failure delays 65,000 passengers (corporate.ryanair.com)

Link Source

[1.5]

Ryanair demands Nats CEO resign after UK flight chaos hits 65,000 passengers (dn.se)

<1h

Link Source (Swedish)

[1.5]

UK airports hit by flight disruptions after air traffic control glitch (ca.finance.yahoo.com)

Link Source

[1.5]

UK flight cancellations hit 200 after air traffic control fault (hosteltur.com)

Link Source (Spanish)

[1.5]

UK airports hit by air traffic control failure, over 200 flights cancelled (ilsole24ore.com)

Link Source (Italian)

[1.4]

UK air traffic control failure grounds hundreds of flights at Heathrow and Gatwick (actu.fr)

Link Source (French)

[1.4]

UK Air Traffic Fault Disrupts Flights at Major Airports (nettavisen.no)

Link Source (Swedish)

[1.4]

UK air traffic control fault delays flights at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, and Stansted (khaleejtimes.com)

Link Source

[1.4]

UK airports hit by air traffic control outage (thestar.com)

Link Source [$]

[1.4]

Dublin Airport flights delayed by UK air traffic control outage (rte.ie)

Link Source

[1.4]

UK air traffic control fault cancels 200 flights at Heathrow and Gatwick (bbc.com)

Link Source

[1.3]

UK flights disrupted as 300 cancelled after air traffic control fault (ca.news.yahoo.com)

Link Source

[1.3]

UK air traffic control failure grounds flights at major airports (ilfattoquotidiano.it)

Link Source (Italian)

[1.3]

UK flight chaos: Nearly 300 flights cancelled after air traffic control fault (di.se)

Link Source (Swedish)

[1.2]

UK cancels over 350 flights after air traffic control glitch (news18.com)

<1h

Link Source

[1.2]

UK airports hit by air traffic control failure, disrupting flights (bbc.co.uk)

Link Source

[1.2]

UK flight cancellations reach nearly 300 after air traffic control glitch (firstpost.com)

Link Source

[1.2]

Nats says UK flight disruption recovery will take time (standard.co.uk)

Link Source

[1.1]

UK airports hit by air traffic control glitch disrupting hundreds of flights (thestar.com.my)

Link Source

[1.1]

UK flights cancelled after air traffic control technical fault (dailystar.co.uk)

Link Source

[1.1]

UK flights suspended and delayed after air traffic control fault hits Heathrow and Gatwick (realitatea.net)

Link Source (Romanian)

[1.1]

UK airports cancel nearly 300 flights after technical fault hits Heathrow and Manchester (hindustantimes.com)

Link Source

[1.0]

UK airports face departure delays after air traffic control fault (newsit.gr)

Link Source (Greek)

[0.8]

UK airports hit by air traffic control fault causing flight delays (dailystar.co.uk)

Link Source

[0.8]

Heathrow suspends all departures after technical fault (20min.ch)

Link Source (German)