By A technical failure at NATS, the UK’s air traffic control provider, grounded and delayed Air India flights on Tuesday as part of a wider disruption across British airports.
More than 1,000 flights were cancelled across the UK on Tuesday, with a further 177 flights cancelled for Wednesday as the network cleared the backlog.
Air India said the outage forced it to divert, delay or cancel several flights to and from UK airports, with Heathrow the worst hit.
Gatwick, London City, Luton, Edinburgh and Bristol airports also reported disrupted operations during the outage.
NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe said the exact cause of the failure was still under investigation, even as systems returned to normal operation.
The Civil Aviation Authority was expected to seek a detailed report from NATS on the incident, given the scale of disruption it caused across the network.
Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Luton, Edinburgh and Bristol airports all reported disrupted flight operations during the outage, with Heathrow the most severely affected.
NATS said recovery from the backlog across the aviation network would take time even after the underlying technical issue was resolved.
This is not the first time a NATS technical failure has caused mass disruption to UK air travel, with similar system outages having grounded flights in the past.
Air India was among several international carriers, alongside UK domestic airlines, affected by the disruption at Heathrow and other British airports.
Passengers travelling to and from the UK were advised to check their flight status directly with airlines given the scale and unpredictability of the disruption.
NATS, formerly known as National Air Traffic Services, is the primary air traffic control provider for UK airspace, handling flight data processing for arrivals and departures across the country’s busiest airports.
September is a peak month for Indian student travel to the UK, meaning the timing of the outage was particularly disruptive for passengers flying to British universities for the new academic term.
London Heathrow Airport Terminal 5, Wikimedia Commons, CC0
