Britain’s airports face more disruption after air traffic control glitch

• More than 150 flights were cancelled on Sept 9, mainly at Heathrow, owing to a technical glitch in Britain's air traffic control system causing ongoing disruption.
• NATS acknowledged the complex recovery process and apologised, while airlines like British Airways and Ryanair reported thousands of passengers affected and many flight cancellations.
• Officials and airline leaders demanded accountability and improvements, with Ryanair calling for NATS' CEO to be replaced and the government to intervene promptly.

LONDON - British travellers faced more misery on Sept 9 with more than 150 flights scrapped across the country, as Britain’s air traffic control service scrambled to recover from a technical glitch that sparked chaos.

Aircraft tracking website FlightRadar24 said 177 flights scheduled for Sept 9 had already been axed, following 1,300 cancellations to and from airports in Britain on Sept 8.

Nearly all the flights cancelled on Sept 9 were at Britain’s busiest airport Heathrow in London, FlightRadar24 wrote on social media platform X.

The National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said late on Sept 8 it was still working to resolve disruption following a “system issue”.

“Work is continuing to assist airlines and airports recover from today’s disruption,” NATS posted on X.

“This has been a very complex recovery and has created difficulties for the whole aviation network, from which it will take time to recover.”

Heathrow said late on Sept 8 that departures had resumed, after the “technical issue” forced the airport to suspend arrivals that day.

But it warned that “disruption is expected to continue”, asking passengers in a post on X to check with their airline before travelling to the airport.

NATS said earlier it had “resolved” the glitch that caused the disruption and was “working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights”.

“We know this is hugely frustrating and apologise unreservedly,” the organisation wrote on X.

The chaos on Sept 8 followed a technical glitch in July 2025 that saw scores of flights to and from Britain cancelled, prompting anger from airline chiefs.

Britain saw its worst air systems failure in years in 2023, with more than 700,000 passengers affected after hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled.

‘Absolute nightmare’

Heathrow in west London and Gatwick to the south of the British capital confirmed they were affected.

“It’s just an absolute nightmare down there,” healthcare worker Josie Donoghue said of Gatwick after leaving the airport, having had to disembark her flight to Ireland after being stuck for three hours stuck on the runway.

“Getting through that airport was like trying to get out of Alcatraz,” she told Britain’s domestic Press Association news agency.

Liverpool, Birmingham and Edinburgh airports were also affected, while Dublin Airport in Ireland said it had cancelled dozens of flights.

British Airways said it was forced to cancel or divert more than 100 flights, impacting tens of thousands of its customers.

Irish no-frills carrier Ryanair said more than 65,000 of its passengers had been disrupted and that it had cancelled more than 50 flights.

Arsenal, due to play Napoli in the Champions League on Sept 7 in the southern Italian city, were forced to cancel a news conference ahead of the match after the team’s flight was delayed.

British Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said on X she was “seeking assurances that lessons will be learnt and systems that support aviation are up to the job”.

But Ryanair chief operating officer Neal McMahon repeated his calls for NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe to be fired, accusing him of having again “failed UK travellers”.

“Enough is enough, it’s time for the UK government to intervene... and put somebody in charge who can do the job.” AFP