Holidaymakers face days of chaos and may not get compensation after air traffic control meltdown

More than 150 summer holiday flights were cancelled across the country yesterday due to a ‘technical glitch’ at the air traffic control provider NATS’ control centre in Swanick, Hampshire - blamed on a ‘radar failure’.

Passengers are today being urged to check flight information with their airline after the glitch which affected all UK airports.

Experts have today said disruption is likely to last days.

NATS has apologised and said it took 20 minutes to resolve the problem, by switching to a back-up system. Its systems resumed full operation within an hour.

However the flight cancellation sparked a massive backlog of holidaymakers.

Latest from the airports:

• Heathrow said normal operations were in place but 10 flights have been cancelled this morning - four departures and six arrivals
• Stansted said all flights operating normally
• Gatwick says operations are ‘stable’
• Manchester Airport said three outbound and three inbound flights had been cancelled

Questions have been raised over compensation because disruption caused by things such as a fire, bad weather, strikes by airport or air traffic control staff, or other "extraordinary circumstances" does not entitle passengers to extra compensation.

Under UK law, airlines have a duty to look after passengers if flights are delayed or cancelled.

In August 2023, more than 700,000 passengers were affected by the cancellation of more than 500 flights at the UK's busiest airports due to a major outage.

Ryanair executive Neal McMahon said it was clear "no lessons" had been learnt and passengers continued to "suffer" as a result of NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe's "incompetence".

There were calls today - made by Ryanair’s chief operating officer - for the head of the UK’s air traffic control company Martin Rolfe to resign in the wake of yet another ATC disaster. 

A similar outage in August 2023 left more than 700,000 passengers affected by the cancellation of more than 500 flights at the UK's busiest airports.

The chaos - when Rolfe was at the helm - took several hours to resolve because an engineer was working from home.

Ryanair’s 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 Aug 2023 Nats system outage, and passengers continue to suffer as a result of Martin Rolfe’s incompetence.”

A spokesperson for NATS said the potential cause of the air traffic disruption was a radar-related issue. This was resolved by quickly switching to the back-up system.

The spokesperson added that during this time, they reduced traffic to ensure safety.

There is no evidence that the technical issue was cyber related, they added.

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It comes as one passenger, stranded aboard a London-bound flight at Italy's Treviso airport in Venice, told LBC the captain had told passengers: "traffic control over London is blocked".

Maps emerging online show the aftermath of the outage, with a cluster of aircraft gathered at London airports, leaving airspace across the south of England largely clear of air traffic.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has said “continued disruption is expected” after the Nats radar failure this afternoon.

“I am aware of a technical issue which impacted Nats’ operations causing travel disruption this afternoon,” the Cabinet minister posted on X.

“I have been informed systems have now been restored but continued disruption is expected, and passengers should check with individual airports for advice.”

Passengers have also taken to social media to show pictures of themselves stranded on runways across the London area.

A source at Eurocontrol said the radar failure was an isolated incident affecting the UK, with no reported outages across continental Europe.

British Airways said the number of flights departing from and landing at Heathrow is restricted to 32 per hour.

Its flight traffic will resume to the normal level of 45 per hour at 19:15.

London City airport has warned that some flights may now be cancelled, posting a statement to X that read: “Due to a technical issue with air traffic control across the London area, flights in and out of London airports - including London City Airport - might be delayed or subject to cancellation.”

In a statement, Sir Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, 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.”

As news of the outage broke, a London Gatwick spokesperson said: "A technical issue impacting NATS that affected outbound flights across the UK has now been resolved. As a result there are some delays at London Gatwick while operations resume.

"Passengers should check the status of their flights with their airline."

One passenger told LBC the pilot had warned that "a queue of flights" would be waiting to land when planes are eventually able to re-enter airspace.

In a statement, a London Gatwick spokesperson said: "A technical issue impacting NATS is affecting all outbound flights across the UK.

"There are currently no departures from London Gatwick while the situation is being resolved."

This was updated less than an hour later, as aircraft resumed arrivals and departures to major London airports.

Following the outage, airlines are demanding answers regarding the steps being taken by Nats to stop issues from happening again.

EasyJet’s chief operating officer David Morgan said: "It’s extremely disappointing to see an ATC failure once again causing disruption to our customers at this busy and important time of year for travel.

"While our priority today is supporting our customers, we will want to understand from Nats what steps they are taking to ensure issues don’t continue."