Tuesday, September 22, 2026 - Flights at several UK airports were delayed on Monday after a new air traffic control failure disrupted services, creating fresh problems for passengers less than two weeks after a separate nationwide outage.
Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast airports reported delays linked to a connectivity issue at NATS' Prestwick control centre in Scotland, while London Gatwick and London City also warned passengers of disruption.
NATS said the latest problem was unrelated to the earlier software defect that resulted in around 2,000 cancelled flights and affected hundreds of thousands of travellers. Transport Minister Heidi Alexander said the latest issue had been fixed and systems were returning to normal.
However, airlines continued to warn passengers about delays, with Ryanair saying about 25,000 of its passengers were affected and easyJet confirming some cancellations.
The disruption is putting renewed attention on the reliability of the UK's air traffic control system as airlines and passengers face another round of travel uncertainty.
The Civil Aviation Authority said passengers affected directly by the incident were unlikely to qualify for compensation, although airlines were expected to provide appropriate care. Travellers flying through affected airports are being urged to check their flight status before heading to the airport as the system works to clear remaining delays.
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