Air Traffic Control (ATC) in the United Kingdom (UK) is experiencing technical issues, resulting in potential flight disruptions across the country.
British Airways, in response to a passenger on X (formerly known as Twitter), said that currently, “flights are subject to delays due to an IT failure at NATS”. Meanwhile, the UK regional airline Loganair said that there has been a “network-wide failure of UK air traffic control systems this morning”.
“Although we are hopeful of being able to operate most intra-Scotland flights on the basis of local coordination and with a minimum of disruption, north-south and international flights may be subject to delays,” the regional carrier continued.
NATS is “UK’s leading provider of air traffic control services,” according to its website.
In a statement to Sky News, NATS said that the company is “currently experiencing a technical issue and have applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety”.
“We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause,” it added.
EUROCONTROL observed that the UK “is experiencing a Flight Data Processing System failure”, with the Scottish and London Flight Information Regions (FIR) being “regulated at low rates with very high individual delays”.
“Currently there is no indication of when a solution for the failure will be available so no improvements for flights entering UK airspace are forseen in the near future,” EUROCONTROL added.
Meanwhile, Dublin Airport (DUB), Ireland, published a statement saying that ATC issues in the UK “are resulting in delays to some flights into and out of Dublin Airport”.
“We advise all passengers due to travel today to check the status of their flight with their airline in advance of travelling.”
London Luton Airport (LTN) said that the ATC issue “is affecting UK airspace, resulting in disruption to flights”.
“We’re working with the relevant authorities to understand the impact and the timescale for normal operations to resume,” LTN added.
Flightradar24.com data shows that while arrivals to UK airports experience minimal disruption, several airports throughout the country, including Manchester Airport (MUN), Birmingham Airport (BHX), as well as London’s Heathrow (LHR), Gatwick (LGW), and City (LCY) Airports are experiencing “some delays or few cancelations”.
“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,” NATS said in an update at 12:40 PM local time (UTC +1).
UPDATE August 28, 2023, 14:50 (UTC +3): The article was updated with information from EUROCONTROL.
UPDATE August 28, 2023, 14:55 (UTC +3): The article was updated with a statement from NATS.