Flights to and from the UK are likely to continue being disrupted for the next few days following a technical problem with the nation's air traffic control (ATC) system that caused delays and cancellations to hundreds of flights on Monday (28 August).
The UK's National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said the problem stemmed from a technical issue that hindered their ability to automatically process flight plans, which meant they had to input flight plans manually.
Because they could not process the same volume of flights using manual methods, they had to impose traffic flow restrictions leading to cancellations and delays. NATS finally reported that it had resolved the issue at 3:15pm UK time on Monday but the problem still caused nearly 30 per cent of departing and arriving flights at UK airports to be cancelled during the day.
“It will take some time for flights to return to normal,” said NATS operations director Juliet Kennedy in a video posted on the NATS site on Monday evening. “We will continue to work with the airlines and the airports to recover the situation.”
While the statement did not elaborate on how long the recovery might take, British Airways has already allowed passengers booked through Tuesday to change their flights to a later day without penalty.
UK transport secretary Mark Harper told the BBC on Tuesday morning: "The timing was not helpful at all for people. It has disrupted thousands of people. Lots of flights were cancelled and it is going to take some days to get people back to where they should be.”
Harper added that the cause of the technical problem was being investigated but confirmed that it had not been due to a “cyber attack” on the air traffic control system.
Aviation analytics firm Cirium said that 790 departing flights from UK airports were cancelled on Monday, which was around 27 per cent of all scheduled departures. While 785 arriving flights into UK airports were cancelled – also around 27 per cent of planned services.
Cirium added that London Heathrow had seen the highest number of cancellations, followed by London Gatwick and Manchester airports. The day was already busier than usual for UK airports due to the timing of a bank holiday on Monday.