Furious passengers and airlines have demanded answers from air traffic control (ATC) provider Nats after more than 150 flights were cancelled in the UK on Wednesday following a technical glitch in the ATC system.
Thousands of passengers were left stranded on runways after planes at major UK airports had to be grounded following a technical glitch at air traffic control.
No planes were able to take off for around 20 minutes at airports across the country following an issue at a control centre in Hampshire at around 4pm on Wednesday, creating a backlog of delays during the busy summer period.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said “continued disruption is expected” and urged passengers to “check with individual airports for advice” after thousands of passengers were left stranded across Europe.
Aviation experts warned delays could be experienced for days.
National Air Traffic Services (NATS) later confirmed that there had been a radar failure, which was resolved by quickly switching to a backup system.
It came after more than 700,000 passengers suffered disruption when flights were grounded at UK airports on August 28 2023 when Nats suffered a technical glitch while processing a flight plan.
EasyJet's chief operating officer David Morgan said: "It's extremely disappointing to see an ATC failure once again causing disruption to our customers at this busy and important time of year for travel.
"While our priority today is supporting our customers, we will want to understand from Nats what steps they are taking to ensure issues don't continue."
Ryanair called for Nats' chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign in the wake of the fault, claiming "no lessons have been learnt" since the August 2023 system outage.
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.
"It is clear that no lessons have been learnt since the August 2023 Nats system outage, and passengers continue to suffer as a result of Martin Rolfe's incompetence."
Mr McMahon continued: "If Nats CEO Martin Rolfe fails to resign on the back of this latest Nats system outage that has disrupted thousands of passengers yet again, then UK transport minister Heidi Alexander must act without delay to remove Martin Rolfe and deliver urgent reform of Nats' shambolic ATC service, so that airlines and passengers are no longer forced to endure these preventable delays caused by persistent Nats failures."
The Department for Transport (DfT) noted that the Transport Secretary does not have any direct control over Nats and has no powers on staffing decisions.
But the government said it was "working closely" with NATS to understand what had gone wrong.
Aviation analysts Cirium revealed over 150 flights were cancelled across the country on Wednesday.
There had been at least 84 departures cancelled across all UK airports by 10pm on Wednesday. A further 71 arrivals were also cancelled.
London Heathrow saw the highest number of cancellations with 46 flights grounded.
There were 29 departures and 17 arrivals cancelled at Britain’s busiest airport on Wednesday by 7.30pm.
Cirium confirmed to the Standard that the next worst hit airports were Gatwick and London City Airport.
It is understood there are still knock-on effects from the outage on Thursday morning. Most flights from London are taking off on time, but some are sowing as delayed or cancelled. Concerned passengers should check with their airline.
Some flights were diverted and forced to land in other European cities on Wednesday evening as they waited for space to safely travel to the UK.
An Italian couple trying to reach Gatwick were left stranded on a runway in Paris for nearly three hours after their flight was diverted to the French capital.
Valentina Balsarin, 25, and her boyfriend Stefano, 26, first left Milan at 2pm GMT before they had to land in Paris.
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Speaking while she was still stranded on the runway, Ms Balsarin told the Standard: “I have a flight to New York from London that is departing now.
“Now, after three hours, we have been told that we are about to depart, so fingers crossed I’ll get to London soon, even though I’ve lost my flight to New York.”
The Italian explained that most people on the flight were very upset as many of them were also hoping to get connecting flights to New York.
Meanwhile, Gurminder Marwaha, 49, was left stuck on the tarmac for an hour at Heathrow Airport.
He was left stranded waiting at the end of the runway to find out if his work trip would be able to go ahead.
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He told the Standard: “The pilot came on and said there was a delay and said there was a delay and we should be moving soon.
“Then the captain came on 15 minutes later and said there was a radar issue and there would be no departures. They could not give an ETA.
“A wee bit later they came on and said the engines were being shut, the seatbelt signs were off and we could use the toilets if needed.
“The British Airways crew were fab and handed out water. There was a long queue of planes behind us but luckily we took off eventually. Others I don’t believe were so lucky.
“We were the first plane at the top of the queue. I think that is why we managed to get away.”
The issue on Wednesday left many aircraft and flight crews out of position as well as creating major backlogs at airports during the busy summer period.
NATS explained it had to limit the number of aircraft flying in the London control area to ensure passengers’ safety.
Another plane was left trapped on the tarmac at Heathrow for around four hours after the flight was unable to take off due to the backlog created by the technical glitch.
Boris Redfern spoke to the BBC while he was waiting for his delayed British Airways flight to Pisa to take off.
He told the broadcaster: “We were scheduled to fly at 3.35pm. I’ve been on the plane for nearly two and a half hours and we have just heard over the tannoy system it’s going to be at least another 90 minutes before we get in the air.
“I was due to land in Pisa at 6.30pm and I’ll be arriving at 10pm… Nobody seems to have any idea what has happened from the air traffic control perspective.”
In an update, British Airways had earlier said the problem was “affecting the vast majority of our flights”.
It explained the number of its inbound and outbound flights at Heathrow was restricted to 32 per hour until 7.15pm on Wednesday, before the flow rate returned to the usual level of 45 per hour.
The Liberal Democrats quickly called for a full investigation into the air traffic control glitch, with the group’s leader Sir Ed Davey labelling the disruption as “utterly unacceptable”.
Sir Ed added: “Air traffic control has once again been hit by a technical fault.
“With thousands of families preparing to go on a well-earned break, this just isn’t good enough.
“The Government should launch an urgent investigation to ensure the system is fit for purpose, including ruling out hostile action as a cause.
“The public deserve to have full confidence in such a vital piece of national infrastructure.”
