A major technical failure at the UK's air traffic control system on Sep. 8 brought British air travel to a near standstill, forcing the cancellation of more than 2,000 flights and affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers. It was the third similar large-scale system failure at UK airports in nearly three years. The UK Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement on Sep. 9 that the disruption caused by the failure may be classified as "extraordinary circumstances" under passenger rights regulations, meaning affected travellers may not be entitled to compensation.
The failure occurred on the morning of Sep. 8 local time, when the flight data processing system of NATS, the UK's national air traffic service, experienced a "technical anomaly." Traffic at multiple major UK airports was temporarily paralysed, including Gatwick, Luton, and Stansted in London, as well as airports in Birmingham, Manchester, and Edinburgh.
Aviation analytics firm Cirium said about 1,750 flights were cancelled on the 8th. According to reports, nearly four hours passed from the onset of the failure until NATS announced it had identified and fixed the problem and restarted the flight processing system. During that time, flights scheduled to depart from UK airports were unable to leave.
On the evening of Sep. 8, NATS issued a statement saying it had fixed the system issue and ruled out the possibility of a cyberattack, adding that it would conduct a thorough investigation into the cause. However, even after the system was restored, a large backlog of flights remained. The New York Times reported on the 9th that an additional 300 flights were cancelled.
The failure sparked strong dissatisfaction in the aviation industry. Ryanair said about 150,000 passengers were affected, with delays of up to 8 hours and 200 flights cancelled. The company publicly called for NATS CEO Rolf to step down.
UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said on Sep. 9 that the failure left hundreds of thousands of passengers facing cancelled, rerouted, and delayed flights, but she "does not believe this was unavoidable." She has called for an independent investigation into the cause.
This is not the first time the UK's air traffic control system has suffered a major failure. In August 2023, NATS experienced a similar data processing problem, leading to hundreds of flight cancellations and affecting more than 700,000 people. In late July last year, another technical failure disrupted flights at Heathrow, Gatwick, and other major airports for more than four hours.
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