traffic

A GROWING number of UK airports are facing delays and cancellations following another air traffic control failure.

This comes just a fortnight after a major outage left thousands of passengers stranded at airports across the UK.

London Gatwick, Glasgow Airport and Belfast International Airport are amongst airports currently seeing disruptions.

Earlier this morning, it was reported that an issue with National Air Traffic Services (NATS) was affecting airspace in the north of England and Scotland.

NATS has stressed that the issue is unrelated to the major air traffic control outage that saw over 500,000 passengers stranded.

Belfast International Airport has confirmed on its website that it is experiencing NATS-related delays, saying: “We are currently experiencing some delays to flights due to a NATS air traffic control issue.”

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Passengers who do not have a confirmed flight have been instructed to not travel to the airport.

Glasgow Airport has also issued a statement on its website about the delays, saying: “A technical issue affecting NATS air traffic control services at the Prestwick Centre is causing disruption to some flight departures and arrivals.

“As a result, some services operating to and from our airports are experiencing delays, primarily at Glasgow Airport, and further disruption is expected due to the knock-on impact across the network.”

London City Airport said on X: “We are experiencing some disruption due to an issue at @NATS Prestwick.

“We are monitoring the situation closely and working with NATS as they resolve the issue.“

It also told passengers to check with their airline to find out the latest flight information.

Both London Gatwick and Stansted are “operating as normal”, the airports have confirmed, but a handful of departing flights may be delayed.

After over an hour of fixing delays, NATS has now confirmed the issue at its Prestwick centre in Scotland is now fixed.

The air traffic control firm has apologised for today’s flight disruption and said it is working with airports and airlines to “minimise any further disruption”.

Transport Secretary also commented on the incident, calling the disruptions “deeply frustrating” and warning passengers of “some delays”.

SINGAPORE: Commodity vessel ‌transits through the Strait of Hormuz fell to a single digit per day at the weekend, preliminary shiptracking data showed on Monday, well below a 10-day average of 14.

Over the weekend, four vessels exited the Gulf through the strait, including a Handysize vessel sailing in ballast, a Handy vessel carrying LPG, a Supramax carrying fertilizer and a Suezmax laden with crude or condensate.

Ten vessels entered the Gulf, ‌including a ‌mini-bulker carrying minor bulk commodities, a Handymax ‌carrying grain, a Panamax carrying metals and a Supramax carrying dry bulk cargo, the data showed.

The figures exclude any vessels that might have crossed the strait with their Automatic Identification System transponders turned off to avoid detection.

A vessel was struck by an unknown projectile while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the United ‌Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said ‌early on Sunday.

It said the crew’s status, damage assessment ‌and environmental impact were unknown.

Meanwhile, the vital East-West ‌oil pipeline in Saudi Arabia, which has helped relieve the logjam in the Strait of Hormuz, was temporarily shut down by a drone attack coming from Iraq, ‌Saudi officials said.

Before the Iran war started on February 28, the strait typically handled about 125 large, commercial vessels per day, including tankers, gas carriers, bulkers and container vessels, accounting for some 20% of the world’s daily crude oil and liquefied natural gas supply.

A US blockade of Iran-related shipping has halted Iranian crude oil exports since it was reimposed in mid-July. In the Bab el-Mandeb strait, 24 and 27 commodity vessels travelled through respectively on Saturday and Sunday, tracking data showed, compared with an average of around 27 ships over the last 10 days.

ABTA has issued a statement on the situation at airports across the UK, advising passengers of their rights and what steps they should take if their flight is cancelled or delayed this week

ABTA, the UK’s biggest trade travel association, has issued a statement amid air traffic control chaos at British airports which has continued into a second day.

According to BBC figures, obtained from aviation analytics firm Cirium, 1,750 flights were cancelled yesterday (Tuesday, September 8), and more than 150 have been cancelled today so far. Significant delays are also expected to persist today due to the knock-on effect of yesterday’s cancellations.

At least 16 major UK airports have been affected by the wave of cancellations, which are due to a major technical problem impacting National Air Traffic Services (NATS), leading ABTA to issue advice to affected passengers.

Luke Petherbridge, director of public affairs at ABTA, said in a statement: “If your flight has been delayed or cancelled customers will have rights, which will vary depending on whether they booked their flight separately or as part of a package.

“ABTA members will be supporting those booked with them, to help make alternative arrangements, and we have advice on abta.com to help people understand their rights.

“While the immediate priority is supporting customers, as this isn’t the first NATS outage to cause widespread disruption, the industry and the public will want answers as to what has gone wrong, what lessons are being learned, and how the system will be made more resilient to avoid this happening again.”

ABTA has advised passengers to visit it FAQs page, which gives passengers a breakdown of their rights if a flight is delayed or cancelled. If a flight is delayed, your airline is required to offer certain support, from refreshments to accommodation and transfers, depending on the length of the delay and the route.

ABTA also says: “If the delay exceeds five hours, your airline must offer you the choice of taking a refund of the flight cost.” However, it’s unlikely passengers hit by today’s delays and cancellations will be able to claim for additional compensation. It states: “if it wasn’t the airline’s fault, you won’t be entitled to receive any compensation. Delays caused by things like extreme weather, airport or air traffic control strikes or other ‘extraordinary circumstances’ are not eligible for compensation.”

For those hit by cancellations, ABTA says: “If your flight is cancelled and you’re departing from the UK, your airline must offer you the choice of a replacement flight at the earliest opportunity or a refund.”

It advises: “If you were at the airport when your flight was cancelled, and you’ve chosen rerouting, you’re also entitled to care and assistance while you wait to be rerouted. This usually means food, drink, access to communications (e.g. two free phone calls) plus accommodation and the necessary transfers if the replacement flight departs the next day or later.”

Airlines affected by delays and cancellations include London-Heathrow, Gatwick, London-Stansted, London-City, London=-Southend, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Liverpool John Lennon, Aberdeen, Belfast, EMA, Southampton, Leeds and Jersey.

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LONDON — More than 400 flights were canceled Tuesday due to a technical issue in Britain’s air traffic control system, reported the flight monitoring website Flightradar24.

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.

In an update, it said it had “implemented a fix and our flight system is starting to recover.”

About 425 flights to and from U.K. airports, including Heathrow, were canceled, affecting services operated by multiple airlines including British Airways, EasyJet, KLM and Lufthansa.

The affected airports, which also included Stansted and City in London, as well as airports in Manchester, Birmingham and Scotland, said the technical issue caused disruptions. They warned passengers to check the status of their flight with their airline.

Budget airline EasyJet said some of its flights were “unable to operate” and that the system failure caused “delays to flights across Europe.”

Some passengers took to social media to complain about being stuck on the tarmac for hours. Many expressed frustration about a lack of communication from airlines.

Heathrow’s website showed that many short-haul flights departing for European destinations had been canceled or delayed.

Arriving flights did not appear to be affected. It was not immediately clear what caused the technical problem.

ALL departing flights from UK airports including both Heathrow and Gatwick are majorly disrupted due to an “air traffic control failure”.

Thousands of passengers have been stranded across the country as flights are grounded.

The country’s air traffic control service NATS has a “technical issue” causing widespread chaos for departing flights.

Planes arriving into airports are not impacted.

A Heathrow spokesperson said: “The air traffic control service NATS is experiencing a technical issue which is affecting departing flights at UK airports.

“Arriving flights are not currently impacted.

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“We are supporting our local NATS team in their efforts to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

“We will provide updated information when we have it.

“We apologise to those disrupted and advise passengers to check with their airline for the latest flight information.

“This is affecting all UK airports, not just Heathrow and Gatwick.”

Fuming passengers told The Sun they’re stuck abroad because their flights are unable to leave over the issue in the UK, and have been warned they may have to get hotels for the night.

A National Air Traffic Services spokesperson said in a statement: “We are investigating a technical issue which is causing some disruption to flight departures.

“Our engineers are on site and we will provide an update as soon as we can.

“We apologise for the delay this will cause to journeys, passengers should check with their airline on the status of their flight.”

Are you affected? Email emily.davies@thesun.co.uk

It said in an update: “We have identified that the issue was in our flight processing system. Our engineers are on site and working urgently to resume normal operations as quickly as possible. 

“We recognise the ongoing disruption to travel, for which we sincerely apologise. Flights are still departing and airspace is open, but recovery will take some time.

“We will provide further updates as soon as possible. Passengers should check the status of their flight with their airline.

“We will provide further updates as soon as we have confirmed information, at http://www.nats.aero and on X at @NATS.”

Airport management at Heathrow said all outgoing flights have been temporarily halted.

Belfast City Airport also warned of “some disruption” to flights.

Manchester Airport Group, the company that operates Manchester Airport, Stansted Airport in Essex and East Midlands Airport in Leicestershire, said flights from all three had been affected by the air traffic control issue.

In 2023, thousands of passengers were left stranded by another major air traffic control failure.

It grounded 500 flights across the UK and Brits were stuck for hours on a Bank Holiday.

The “one in 15 million” event led to thousands of flights being cancelled and delayed.

An investigation launched by NATS revealed that a flight plan error resulted in the failure, which meant the air space was forced to close down – and only resumed 10 hours later.

In the aftermath, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said NATS could raise the amount it charges airlines by 25 per cent to ensure “safety and quality service”.

The fee increased from £47 to £64 per flight, an increase of 43p per passenger to £2.08 on average.

Sarah, from Manchester, said that people were left “confused and upset” by the chaos while at Lisbon Airport.

She told Sun Travel: “We arrived at the correct time for our 4.30pm flight to Heathrow but were then told our flight was four hours delayed.

“The queues are backing up at the BA check in desks with confused and upset people and crying babies.”

A spokesperson for Jersey Airport said: “UK air traffic control is currently experiencing issues which is impacting flights across the UK including services between Jersey and UK.

“Passengers are advised to check the latest flight information directly with their airline.”

Gatwick Airport added: “We are aware of a NATS technical issue that is currently affecting a number of UK airports, including London Gatwick.

“Passengers are advised to check with their airlines for more information regarding their flights.”

Disgruntled travellers have flocked to social media following the disruption.

One said: “Still stuck next in line on the runway at LHR. 90 minutes in.”
Another said: “BA 742 back to engines off and waiting.  Approaching 2 hour mark in 15 minutes.”

Another person posted on X: “We are currently sat on Alicante tarmac going to Manchester and this is affecting us. Not just London!”

A third said: “Luton airport too! We’re stranded on the actual plane.”