Heathrow and Gatwick among airports hit by air traffic control problems

The fault has now been fixed but Australian travellers are among those facing delays and cancellations as airlines clear a major backlog.

More than 1,000 departures and arrivals into British airports were cancelled today, with thousands of passengers left stranded.

Some passengers said they had been stuck on the tarmac for hours, before their flights were eventually cancelled.

An air traffic control problem has disrupted travel across Britain, cancelling more than 1000 flights and leaving passengers stranded for hours.

Britain’s National Air Traffic Services say it has resolved the issue, but delays rippled across 15 U.K. airports and beyond

The U.K.’s National Air Traffic Services said the issues it encountered were resolved shortly after 2:30 p.m. EDT, though it acknowledged a backlog of flights.

Almost 1,100 flights to and from UK airports were cancelled overnight due to a "system issue".

Some passengers said they had been stuck on the tarmac for hours, before their flights were eventually cancelled.

A technical issue in the UK’s air traffic control system disrupted flights at major airports.

Flights have been grounded as Nats tackle an air traffic control issue across at least 15 airports

Britain’s National Air Traffic Services said a problem had been identified in its flight processing system and engineers were urgently working on the issue, which affected flights across the U.K.

Air traffic control issue disrupts departing flights at major UK airports

Heathrow, Stansted and City airports in London, as well as airports in Manchester, Birmingham, Scotland and elsewhere in the U.K., said the technical issue was causing some disruptions. They warned passengers to check the status of their flight with their airline

Travel chaos at UK airports as air traffic control glitch cancels over flights

UK air traffic control failure disrupts flights at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted. Nearly 300 flights were cancelled Tuesday because of a technical issue in the U.K. air traffic control system, the flight monitoring website Flightradar24 reported.

UK air traffic control failure hits Heathrow, Gatwick: What passengers should do Passengers at some of Britain's busiest airports are facing long waits after an air traffic control problem delayed flights across the country on Tuesday, September 8, 2026. Heathrow and Gatwick have

Departures from a number of airports have been affected by a technical problem affecting air traffic control provider Nats.

Heathrow, Gatwick and London City airports have been among the most-impacted after a “technical issue” grounded scores of flights across the UK. Britain’s air traffic control service, Nats, said just before 2pm it was investigating a “technical issue” which had delayed…