Flights at Gatwick and Southampton airports are continuing to recover following a major technical failure at the UK’s air traffic control provider NATS.
The problem on Tuesday affected NATS’ flight processing system and caused widespread disruption across the UK aviation network, with more than 1,000 flights reported to have been cancelled.
NATS has confirmed the technical fault itself has now been resolved and says its systems are operating normally, although the knock-on impact is continuing to affect airlines and airports.
In its latest official statement, issued at 10.10pm on Tuesday, NATS said work was continuing to help the aviation industry recover, describing the process as “very complex” and warning that it would take time for the network to return to normal.
An earlier update at 7.30pm confirmed the system issue had been resolved and that NATS was operating normally while working to clear the backlog of flights.
NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe has said he does not believe the incident was caused by a cyber attack.
The disruption began on Tuesday afternoon when NATS reported a technical problem affecting flight departures.
At 3.25pm, the organisation confirmed the fault was within its flight processing system. UK airspace remained open and some flights continued to depart while engineers worked on the problem.
A fix was implemented later in the afternoon, but the resulting backlog continued into the evening.
Passengers at Gatwick are still seeing some disruption.
The airport’s official live flight information showed a number of services operating normally alongside delayed and cancelled flights.
Among those listed as cancelled on the board this morning were an easyJet Belfast service and a British Airways service involving Orlando, while a number of other flights were showing later-than-scheduled arrival times. The airport’s flight information does not state whether individual cancellations or delays are directly linked to the NATS incident.
At Southampton Airport, an official alert remains in place warning passengers about disruption linked to the NATS technical issue.
The airport says some services operating to and from Southampton may experience delays and is advising passengers to check directly with their airline for the latest information before travelling.
Southampton’s live departure information on Wednesday morning was also showing scheduled services operating, indicating flights are continuing while the wider network recovers.
NATS has apologised for the disruption and advised passengers travelling on Wednesday to continue checking the status of their flight with their airline before setting off for the airport.
The technical failure affected airports across the UK, with the knock-on effects continuing after the NATS system itself had returned to normal.
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