Flights at several British airports faced delays and cancellations on Monday due to a technical issue at the UK's air traffic control provider, NATS. The problem, a "connectivity issue" at its Prestwick center in Scotland, primarily affected airports north of Manchester, including Glasgow and Belfast, but airports south of Manchester were largely unaffected. This incident marks the second technical glitch for NATS in less than two weeks, following a software defect that led to approximately 2,000 flight cancellations earlier this month. NATS has stated that the two issues are unrelated.
The disruption sparked widespread criticism from airlines and industry bodies. EasyJet questioned the "resilience" of the system, while Wizz Air declared a "national confidence crisis" in NATS. Ryanair reported that 140 of its flights were affected, impacting 25,000 passengers, and reiterated its call for NATS chief Martin Rolfe to resign. British Airways expressed disappointment over "yet another technical fault." Airlines UK, an industry representative body, emphasized that both passengers and airlines "deserve better" after this repeated failure.
Although the underlying issue at Prestwick has been resolved, officials warned of ongoing knock-on effects. NATS apologized for the disruption, acknowledging that technology can fail and that their priority is safety while minimizing inconvenience. The Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, recognized the "deeply frustrating" nature of the problems for passengers. Data from Cirium, an aviation analytics company, indicated that 1.15% of departures and 1.21% of arrivals were cancelled or severely delayed, with Glasgow and Belfast experiencing particularly high cancellation rates. Specific airports such as George Best Belfast City Airport (8.70% cancellations) and Glasgow Airport (4.67% cancellations) were significantly impacted. Ryanair's Chief Operations Officer, Neal McMahon, criticized NATS for failing to provide information on when the disruption would end.
