Flight chaos hits major UK airports after air traffic control IT failure
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Passengers flying from several major UK airports have been told to check with their airlines after an air traffic control IT problem caused delays and cancellations, with Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast among the worst affected.
Passengers have been warned to check with their airlines after an air traffic control issue caused flight delays across Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.
National Air Traffic Services (Nats) said engineers were investigating the problem at its Prestwick centre in Scotland. Airports in Edinburgh, Belfast and Manchester were registering delays and urging travellers to check the latest information with carriers.
Flights operating south of Manchester were broadly unaffected, according to Nats, but services heading north and those leaving Scottish airports faced disruption.
A Nats spokesperson said on Monday morning: “Our engineers are continuing to investigate the issue at our Prestwick centre in Scotland.
“Airports south of Manchester are broadly unaffected, however flights heading north and flights departing Scottish airports are currently subject to some delay.
“Passengers should check with their airlines. This is unrelated to the issue two weeks ago. We apologise for the disruption.”
Nats insisted the latest problem was not connected to a software fault earlier this month which resulted in more than 2,000 flights being cancelled.
EasyJet said the disruption “calls into question the resilience of Nats’ systems”.
Manchester, Belfast International, Edinburgh and George Best Belfast City airports have seen the most cancellations or flights registered as “no fly” on Monday morning, according to aviation analytics company Cirium.
The company tags flights as “no flies” if they are delayed for more than three hours.
As of Monday at 9.58am, Manchester, Belfast International and George Best Belfast City airports had each seen four flights cancelled or no flies, whilst Edinburgh had seen three.
- Edinburgh live departure board: click here
- Manchester live departure board: click here
The airline said in a statement: “A Nats air traffic control system failure in its Prestwick centre is causing delays to flights with some unable to operate.
“This, once again, calls into question the resilience of Nats’ systems and demonstrates the need for firm actions to prevent these repeated failures.
“We will do all we can minimise the impact of this for our customers and advise anyone due to fly today to check our flight tracker for the latest information.”
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said on social media: “There has been a further IT issue affecting Nats.
“Engineers have fixed the problem and systems are resuming.
“I know this will be deeply frustrating for passengers after the previous issue.
“There may be some delays as things reset. Please check with your airline for updates.”