Air traffic control ‘technical issue’ sees flight delays up to 12 hours for thousands

According to the aviation analyst Cirium, a total of 6,103 flights were due to arrive or depart from UK airports today – with a combined capacity of 1,083,000 seats.

While not every flight will be sold out, loads on such a key day for departures and arrivals are expected to be extremely heavy.

It is likely, therefore, that one million passengers are booked to arrive or depart. Many of them are families returning from holidays in the Mediterranean or beyond – and many more will be expected back at work after the bank holiday weekend.

A well-placed airline source says that Nats, the air-traffic provider, has identified the problem and that a fix may be put in place soon. Even if the issue is immediately solved, the disruption so far to schedules means long delays and cancellations will continue for the rest of the day.

With so little slack in the system – especially for flights returning from the Mediterranean – some travellers could find their journey home cannot take place for days.

Irish transport minister Jack Chambers has warned of a “major” knock-on impact on flights to and from Ireland as a consequence of the UK air traffic control fault.

“There’s traffic flow restrictions have been introduced to maintain safety in the sky and it will have significant impacts on passengers flying in and out of Dublin, and there are multiple slot restrictions,” Mr Chambers told RTE Radio One.

“So, we’d encourage customers to contact their airline for an update but it will have a major impact on Irish travel because, obviously, the nature and the proximity to UK space.

“There will be an impact and delays of several hours for many passengers, and we’d encourage them to contact their airlines.”

The technical fault is affecting Nats’ ability to automatically process flight plans, the air traffic control services provider has said in its latest statement.

“Until our engineers have resolved this, flight plans are being input manually which means we cannot process them at the same volume, hence we have applied traffic flow restrictions,” the company said.

“Our technical experts are looking at all possible solutions to rectify this as quickly as possible.

“Our priority is ensuring every flight in the UK remains safe and doing everything we can to minimise the impact. Please contact your airline for information on how this may affect your flight. We are sincerely sorry for the disruption this is causing.”

A journalist caught up in the delays in Palma hoping to fly to Gatwick says passengers have been told by the pilot that this is “an unprecedented situation”.

“Three hours later and still on the tarmac after our flight was delayed due to ‘air traffic control issues’ affecting the UK. Pilot told us this is an unprecedented situation and something he’s never seen before,” said Georgia Ziebart, a producer at Sky News.

Dozens of cancellations are now under way at London Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport.

European airlines flying from nearby cities were first to instigate cancellations of flights due to arrive at Heathrow on Monday afternoon.

Lufthansa and its subsidiary Eurowings have grounded flights from Cologne, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Stuttgart.

Air France and its partner KLM have axed departures from Paris and Amsterdam respectively to Heathrow.

British Airways has started to cancel long- and short-haul flights. The Independent understands that European links to Copenhagen, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris and Prague have been grounded, along with transatlantic flights to Chicago and Philadelphia.

Dozens more flights have been apparently rescheduled to the early hours of Tuesday morning, when Heathrow does not normally have any departures.

Labour’s shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said news of delays to flights in and out of the UK was “extremely concerning” for air passengers.

Rishi Sunak has been urged to convene a Cobra meeting after a technical fault hit air traffic control in the UK.

Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson Wera Hobhouse said: “Rishi Sunak and his ministers need to get a grip on this issue urgently and hold a Cobra meeting.

“Millions of holidaymakers could be facing huge disruption in the coming days due to this fault and we can’t risk this Government being missing in action yet again.

“Brits need to know that the government is doing all it can to make sure people aren’t hit with major delays and disruptions in the coming days.”

Ryanair and Aer Lingus have cancelled a number of flights out of and returning to Dublin Airport as a result of air traffic control issues in the UK.

Services are also understood to be impacted at Cork.

The Aer Lingus airline said: “Due to a failure of the UK air traffic control flight planning systems, which is outside of Aer Lingus’ control, there are severe restrictions on all flights into the UK and flying over UK airspace today.

“We would ask you to check the status of your flight before coming to the airport today as delays and cancellations are likely.”

Ryanair said: “Due to another UK ATC failure, Ryanair will be forced to delay/cancel a number of flights to/from the UK today, Aug 28.

“All affected passengers will be notified of their options to change flights (free of charge) to another Ryanair flight or receive a full refund.

“We sincerely apologise for this UK ATC failure which is beyond Ryanair’s control and is affecting all airlines operating to/from the UK.”

Shannon Airport said the forced restriction of aircraft flow has resulted in the cancellation of the outbound (FR1182) and inbound (FR1183) Ryanair Gatwick service.

A spokesperson for Shannon Airport has advised all passengers due to travel from Shannon to check the status of their flight with their airline in advance of travelling.

The National Air Traffic Service confirmed in a statement that the UK airspace is not closed, despite reporting a “technical issue.”

It said: “We are continuing to work hard to resolve the technical issue. To clarify, UK airspace is not closed, we have had to apply air traffic flow restrictions which ensures we can maintain safety.

“Engineers are working to find and fix the fault. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.”