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Flights cancelled, delayed: What caused UK air traffic meltdown, how long will it last

Official said in a statement on Monday that the problem was fixed but 'it will take some time for flights to return to normal'

Published: Tue 29 Aug 2023, 3:24 PM

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Photo: Reuters file

Photo: Reuters file

Thousands of passengers were left stranded after around 1,000 flights got grounded and cancelled and many were delayed amid the UK air traffic control meltdown. Several airlines, on Monday, announced that their flight operations got disrupted due to the failure of the UK’s National Air Traffic Service (NATS) planning systems.

Many stranded passengers have shared posts on social media complaining about delayed and cancelled flights with some seeking help from airlines.


According to the Independent, thousands of passengers were stranded while over 2,00,000 were affected by delays and cancellations of more than 1,200 flights on August 28.

What caused the meltdown?

Air traffic service NATS said on Monday that it had applied “traffic flow restrictions” after facing “a technical issue”.

“We are currently experiencing a technical issue and have applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause,” NATS tweeted.

The NATS later said that the technical issue was affecting its “ability to automatically process flight plans” and that “flight plans are being input manually which means we cannot process them at the same volume”.

The air traffic service said about an hour later that it had “identified and remedied the technical issue” affecting the flight planning system.

The Times reported that government sources and aviation officials do not suspect a cyberattack to be the reason for the meltdown. However, sources said that an incorrectly filed plan by a French airline could have led to the air traffic control failure.

How long is the flight disruption going to last?

Juliet Kennedy, NATS Operations Director, said in a statement on Monday that the problem was fixed but “it will take some time for flights to return to normal”.

British Airways, on August 28, said that while the issue was resolved, it had caused “significant and unavoidable delays and cancellations”.

“Like all airlines using the UK airspace, our flights have been severely disrupted as a result of a major issue experienced by NATS Air Traffic Control earlier today. While the NATS has now resolved the issue, it has created significant and unavoidable delays and cancellations,” the airline said.

Aer Lingus too said, “While the UN National Air-Traffic Service (NATS) flight planning system is now resolved, like all airlines using UK airspace, we continue to face unavoidable cancellations and delays”.

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