A technical problem at National Air Traffic Services upended plans for hundreds of thousands of people on Tuesday. The issue was confirmed shortly before 2 p.m. local time and fixed by 7:30 p.m., but the aftermath rolled into Wednesday as flights stacked up, aircraft and crews were out of position, and staff hit duty limits. Travelers due to fly Wednesday were urged to check with their airlines for updates.
Flight tracker Flightradar24 reported 1,300 Tuesday cancellations involving U.K. airports, with another 177 already canceled by early Wednesday. Nearly all of Tuesday's cancellations were at London Heathrow, with London Stansted, London Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester also heavily affected.
Martin Rolfe, who leads the U.K.'s air traffic control services, said on BBC Radio 4's Today program that a cyber attack does not appear to be the cause. "We have at this point ruled out cyber, we don't believe it was a cyber attack," he said, adding that "this will be something different that we've never seen in 50 years of operation." He said NATS takes ownership of how this affected passengers, airlines and airports, noting, "We never do this lightly, we only do it when there is an issue that cannot be solved quickly and we have to take action to make sure that those who are flying, who are in the air at the time, are safe," and, "When we can restore these incredibly complex systems, we do so as quickly as we possibly can."
Airlines were blunt in their criticism. Ryanair COO Neal McMahon labeled the episode "abhorrent," saying NATS' breakdown hurt families heading out on holiday as well as people traveling for work.
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NATS runs air traffic control at 15 U.K. airports, handles roughly 2.5 million flights each year, and manages the country's upper airspace used by commercial jets. This episode also follows other major incidents: in July 2025, a radar technical issue led to more than 150 cancellations, and in August 2023, a multi-day disruption over a long weekend tied to the flight plan processing sub-system. Separately, Heathrow passengers have had a rough stretch lately, with rail links to the airport halted over the weekend because of a fire, and the entire airport closing for nearly an entire day in March 2025 following a power cut at a local electrical substation.
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