UK air traffic control system failure disrupts hundreds of flights as airlines clear backlog

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — United Kingdom (UK) air travellers faced more misery Wednesday with nearly 400 flights scrapped across the country, as Britain's air traffic control service scrambled to recover from a technical glitch which it ruled out as a cyberattack. After 1,746 flights were cancelled Tuesday following the outage, another 399 were axed Wednesday -- the majority to and from London Heathrow, one of Europe's busiest airports -- according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. More than 330,000 passengers were affected over the two days of disruption, with 155,000 seeing their flights cancelled while around 180,000 experienced delays, industry body Airlines UK said. "We ended up sitting on our plane for just over five hours," Matt Ernster, 28, who was returning to Boston via Heathrow from his honeymoon in Paris on Tuesday, told AFP. When they were finally allowed to disembark from the plane, "it turned into a gigantic, chaotic scene", Ernster said. The baggage collection "felt like an apocalyptic situation", and there were no hotels available in a two-hour radius. "It was the worst travel experience I've ever had." The head of the National Air Traffic Services (NATS), Martin Rolfe, said "we have at this point ruled out cyber" activity as a cause. "We don't believe it was a cyberattack," he told BBC Radio. Rolfe said NATS will be doing a "very, very thorough" investigation into what exactly caused the incident. National carrier British Airways said it had to cancel nearly 550 flights -- 200 of them Wednesday -- due to the incident, which it said affected 85,000 of its customers. This week's travel chaos followed a technical glitch in July last year that saw scores of flights to and from the UK cancelled, prompting anger from airline chiefs. Britain suffered its worst air systems failure in years in 2023, with more than 700,000 passengers affected after hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled. After holding talks with Rolfe Wednesday morning, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander told MPs she did not believe the issue was "unavoidable". Alexander said she had ordered an independent review to establish the cause and "ensure that our air traffic control systems can get passengers to where they need to be". It will report within six months. Rolfe told Sky News he accepted "full responsibility" but declined to say if he was considering quitting his job. Neal McMahon, chief operations officer at Irish no-frills airline Ryanair, called Tuesday for Rolfe to be fired, accusing him of having "failed UK travellers". Caught up by the glitch, healthcare worker Josie Donoghue endured "an absolute nightmare" at London's Gatwick airport, having had to disembark her flight to Ireland after 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. Susie Senahe, 55, who was travelling back to Accra in Ghana after visiting her daughter in the UK, had been rebooked onto a Friday flight. She told AFP on Wednesday she was planning to sleep at the Heathrow terminal until then. Another woman travelling to the United States, who did not want to be named, said she slept in the airport Tuesday night because nearby hotels were "fully booked". Impacted passengers are unlikely to be entitled to compensation because the outage was likely to be considered due to "extraordinary circumstances" under passenger rights rules, the aviation regulator has said. Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh airports were also affected, primarily on Tuesday, while Dublin airport said it had cancelled dozens of flights. Ryanair has said more than 65,000 of its passengers had been disrupted, with 50 of its flights cancelled, the majority on Tuesday.

Airlines scrambled Wednesday to dig out of the backlog triggered by technical problems experienced by the United Kingdom’s air traffic control system that has forced the cancellation of more than 2,000 flights. Delays continued for a second day Wednesday, rippling across 15 U.K. airports and beyond as airlines and airports worked to clear a huge backlog of canceled and delayed flights. The problems stranded passengers for hours on airport runways and in terminals. Flight delays were expected to continue through the day Wednesday as airlines rebook stranded passengers and work to reposition aircraft left at the wrong airports by the cancellations. NATS, formerly known as National Air Traffic Services, which operates the U.K. air traffic control system, attributed the problems to “an issue in our flight processing system.” The company said that it was supporting airlines and airports while they recover from the “ongoing disruption,” although the original technical issue was resolved Tuesday afternoon. But airlines were furious, demanding that the head of NATS, Martin Rolfe, consider resigning after the second air traffic meltdown in three years. U.K. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander met with Rolfe on Wednesday and gave him one week to complete a full investigation into the incident to make sure lessons are learned. Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s office said that Rolfe retains the confidence of the government. The U.K. government owns 49% of NATS, making it the largest shareholder and giving it a veto over key decisions. Airlines, airports, investors and employees own the remaining shares in the public-private partnership. Rolfe on Wednesday apologized for the inconvenience caused by the outage, but said that the U.K. air traffic control system remains one of the safest and most efficient in the world. “Our job is also to make sure that people stay safe,” he told the BBC. “We never do this lightly. We only ever do it when there is an issue that cannot be resolved quickly, and we have to take action to make (sure) those who are flying, who are in the air at that time, are safe. And when we can restore these incredibly complex systems we do so as quickly as we can.” Meanwhile, passengers were left to fend for themselves. Charlie Adlard, a 60-year-old cartoonist who worked on the “Walking Dead” comic book series, was traveling from his home in western England to a comic book convention in Palermo, Sicily, when his trip was upended by the air traffic issues. After running into the chaos at Heathrow Airport in London, he tried and failed to reach his carrier, British Airways, by phone. “Due to the lack of information, due to everything crashing now, due to the fact that apparently BA have now switched off their customer service phone number because there’s so many calls, we’re not really sure what to do,” Adlard said. After losing a day of work, spending money on an airport hotel and paying for dinner and breakfast, he decided to turn around and go home. “So yeah, I’ve lost quite a bit of money on this rather wasteful journey,” Adlard said. Other airports experienced similar problems. At Gatwick Airport, about 30 miles (around 50 kilometers) south of central London, passengers stretched out on the bare floor beside their suitcases. Others huddled around message boards, hoping for information. Heathrow, Europe’s largest airport, said in a statement posted on X that passengers should check their flight status before traveling to the airport and to “only travel if your flight is confirmed to be operating.″ “We apologize to those affected and have extra colleagues across our terminals to support passengers while we work with NATS and airline partners to restore normal operations as quickly as possible,” Heathrow said. —Danica Kirka, Associated Press

Flights resumed at major UK airports on Wednesday after an air traffic control system failure cancelled more than 1,000 flights and caused delays across Britain. Heathrow and Gatwick warned that disruption could continue as airlines reposition aircraft and crew.Britain’s National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said it had resolved the problem in its flight processing system on Tuesday evening. However, delays continued across 15 UK airports and beyond as airlines and airports worked to clear a backlog of flights.Heathrow resumed departures but suspended arrivals for the rest of Tuesday night. The airport said flights were operating today, but warned that some disruption may continue.Gatwick also said its operations would take time to return to normal.“We still anticipate that it will take time for our operations to fully return to normal,” the airport said.Passengers were left stranded on aircraft, at terminals and at baggage collection areas during the disruption.British Airways cancelled or diverted more than 100 flights. The airline said aircraft and crew had ended up in different locations, affecting its operations.“The severity of the issue means there will be a significant knock-on impact,” a British Airways spokesperson said. “This incident was entirely out of our control and incredibly frustrating for our customers and colleagues, with aircraft and crews ending up out of place.”Passengers on a British Airways flight scheduled to fly from Heathrow to Baltimore spent four hours on the ground before leaving the aircraft. Cabin crew served pasta and chicken curry during the delay, while some passengers watched films or walked through the aisles.Passengers later reported confusion at the baggage claim area and said they were told to file claims for their bags.At Gatwick, Josie Donoghue spent three hours on a plane before her Ryanair flight to Ireland was cancelled.“Getting through that airport was like trying to get out of Alcatraz,” she said, referring to the former island prison in San Francisco Bay. “It’s just an absolute nightmare down there. It’s the only word I can use to describe it.”Ryanair said more than 65,000 passengers were affected and that it had cancelled more than 50 scheduled flights.EasyJet said some of its flights were “unable to operate” and that the system failure caused “delays to flights across Europe.”Other affected airports included London Stansted and London City, as well as airports in Manchester, Birmingham and Scotland. Passengers have been advised to check their flight status with their airline before travelling.