A technical issue involving UK air traffic control provider NATS disrupted departing flights at several major British airports on Tuesday, September 8, with Heathrow Airport saying arriving flights were not affected at the time of its statement.
The disruption was reported at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted airports as airlines and airports issued updates to passengers. Heathrow said the NATS technical issue was affecting departing flights and that it was supporting the local NATS team in efforts to resolve the problem.
“Arriving flights are not currently impacted,” Heathrow said in a statement, while advising passengers to check directly with their airlines for the latest information. The airport said it would provide further updates as they became available.
The number of cancellations reported during the disruption varied. Flight-monitoring website Flightradar24 reported that more than 600 flights had been cancelled on Tuesday because of the technical issue. A separate figure cited in the supplied report put cancellations involving UK airports, including Heathrow, at about 425 flights.
Multiple airlines were affected, including British Airways, EasyJet, KLM and Lufthansa. EasyJet said some of its flights were “unable to operate” and that the system failure had caused delays to services across Europe.
NATS manages air traffic across UK airspace and provides services at several major airports. A disruption to its systems can affect the movement of departing aircraft even when airport facilities and runway operations remain available.
Heathrow apologised to passengers affected by the disruption and repeated its advice to confirm flight status with the relevant airline before travelling. The airport said its teams were working with NATS to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
