Hundreds of UK flights delayed after ATC system failure

Hundreds of flights were delayed across the UK after the air traffic control (ATC) system went down for about 20 minutes on Wednesday, July 30, the Guardian has reported. The disruption raised fears of a repeat of the August 2023 outage, when hundreds of thousands of passengers’ travel plans were thrown into chaos.

Nats, the company responsible for running the UK’s air traffic control network, said the incident was caused by a technical fault at its control centre in Swanwick, Hampshire, but stressed that it had been resolved and was not linked to a cyberattack. The UK National Cyber Security Centre confirmed there was no indication of hacking.

The outage resulted in a cascade of delays, with many aircraft forced to hold or divert, and flight crews ending up out of position. British Airways temporarily reduced flights in and out of Heathrow to 32 per hour – down from the usual 45 – until 7.15 pm, after which normal scheduling resumed. Liverpool’s John Lennon airport warned that disruption could continue into the evening, while passengers nationwide were advised to check with airlines before travelling.

The Guardian reported that Ryanair had called for the resignation of Martin Rolfe, Chief Executive of Nats. The airline’s Chief Operating Officer, Neal McMahon, said: “It is outrageous that passengers are once again being hit with delays and disruption due to Martin Rolfe’s continued mismanagement of Nats.” He added that if Rolfe did not resign, the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, “must act without delay to remove Martin Rolfe and deliver urgent reform of Nats’ shambolic ATC service”.

Alexander acknowledged the incident, warning passengers of “continued disruption” despite the restoration of the system. The Guardian noted that the latest failure comes less than a year after the August 2023 breakdown that disrupted more than 700,000 passengers.