Nearly 130 flights were cancelled and dozens more delayed after the National Air Traffic Services (Nats) was hit by a “technical issue”.
Despite lasting only 20 minutes, the issue forced all outbound flights across the UK to be temporarily grounded, with more than 700,000 passengers facing disruptions.
Nats said its air traffic control systems were “fully restored” and “returning to normal” at about 5pm on Wednesday.
“Departures at all airports have resumed and we are working with affected airlines and airports to clear the backlog safely,” the company said. “We apologise to everyone affected by this issue.”
Aviation analytics firm Cirium said 127 flights to and from the UK had been cancelled by 7:30pm on Wednesday.
In total, 67 departures and 55 arrivals had been cancelled at UK airports.
The highest number of cancellations took place at Heathrow airport, where 24 departures and 14 arrivals were cancelled, Cirium said.
At around 6pm, the firm said 16 flights enroute to London Heathrow had to be diverted to other airports.
Among passengers that faced diversions was Valentina Balsarin, 25, from Milan. She told The i Paper she was flying from Milan to Heathrow airport to catch a connecting flight to New York before her plane was diverted to Paris on Wednesday afternoon.
Ms Balsarin, who was travelling with her boyfriend, Stefano, said: “When the cabin crew announced the diversion I thought it was just for 30 minutes.
“But then they said two hours! It’s been three hours now [and] we are still stuck on the plane.
“No one is giving us any information or news about what’s going on and when we will depart again. Also, our flight to New York departed from London a few minutes ago,” she added.
The pair were flying from Milan to London to catch a connecting flight to New YorkThe Department for Transport (DfT) said it is working closely with Nats to determine the cause of the technical issue that hit air traffic control systems.
A DfT spokesperson said: “While passengers should continue to check with individual airports for advice, Nats have confirmed their systems are now fully operational and flights are returning to normal.
“We are working closely with Nats to understand the cause of the technical issue and the implications for the resilience systems in place.”
The spokesperson also highlighted that Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander does not have control over Nats and has no powers on staffing decisions.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called for an “urgent investigation” to ensure the UK’s air traffic control system is fit for purpose.
He said: “It is utterly unacceptable that after a major disruption just two years ago, air traffic control has once again been hit by a technical fault.
“With thousands of families preparing to go on a well-earned break, this just isn’t good enough.
“The Government should launch an urgent investigation to ensure the system is fit for purpose, including ruling out hostile action as a cause. The public deserve to have full confidence in such a vital piece of national infrastructure.”
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The technical issue on Wednesday echoed a failure in the UK’s air traffic control system in August 2023 that left hundreds of thousands of passengers facing delays, diversions and cancellations, with industry leaders calling on Nats to take “responsibility for the fiasco” at the time.
On Wednesday, Ryanair issued a statement calling for Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign after “yet another” air traffic control failure, which will cause “delays of over four hours” and several diversions of the company’s flights.
Ryanair chief operating officer Neal McMahon said: “It is outrageous that passengers are once again being hit with delays and disruption due to Martin Rolfe’s continued mismanagement of Nats.
“Yet another ATC system failure has resulted in the closure of UK airspace meaning thousands of passengers’ travel plans have been disrupted. It is clear that no lessons have been learnt since the August 2023 Nats system outage and passengers continue to suffer as a result of Martin Rolfe’s incompetence.
He added that if “Rolfe fails to resign on the back of this latest Nats system outage that has disrupted thousands of passengers yet again”, then Alexander “must act without delay to remove” him and deliver urgent reform the company’s service.
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