UK flight chaos: Planes stranded as Heathrow hit by ATC glitch

Dubai: Hundreds of aircraft were stranded, and passengers faced major disruption at airports across Britain on Tuesday after a technical failure in the country’s air traffic control system.

Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted were among the airports affected after National Air Traffic Services (NATS) identified a problem with its flight processing system.

By Tuesday evening, more than 1,000 flights to and from UK airports had been cancelled, according to FlightRadar24, leaving passengers facing long delays and crowded airport terminals.

Images from Heathrow showed aircraft parked on the tarmac as the disruption affected flight schedules. Some passengers were also left waiting for hours as airlines worked to reorganise flights and crews.

NATS later said the technical problem had been resolved, but warned that clearing the backlog would take time.

“Recovery from today’s system issue has taken longer than we had hoped,” NATS said, apologising to passengers for the disruption.

British Airways cancelled its entire short-haul schedule for Tuesday evening, while easyJet cancelled close to 100 flights. Ryanair said more than 65,000 passengers had been affected by delays.

The latest disruption has renewed concerns over the resilience of Britain’s air traffic control infrastructure. It follows previous technical failures, including a 2023 incident that affected more than 700,000 passengers.

Airports have advised travellers to check directly with their airlines for the latest flight information before travelling.

Video: AFP