Passengers flying to and from the United Kingdom face delays today after reports of a network-wide failure of the country's air traffic control systems. This news comes as hundreds of thousands of passengers fly home following the bank holiday weekend.

Technical issues

Sky News reports that several passengers on varying airlines have been told that the UK air traffic control (ATC) network is down, disrupting their flights. Subsequently, the National Air Traffic Services (NATS), the UK's leading provider of air traffic control services, has issued a statement on the matter.

The group shared:

"We are currently experiencing a technical issue and have applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety. Engineers are working to find and the fix the fault. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause."

Airlines have also started sharing updates on the issue on their social media platforms. For instance, Loganair shared on X, formerly known on Twitter, that cross-country and international flights are subject to delays.

International impact

The issues could have a significant impact on operations not only within the UK but across Europe and beyond. According to The Independent, several aircraft on the ground are being temporarily held and some of those already in the skies are likely to be diverted to other airports in other countries.

Looking at London Gatwick Airport's arrival board as an example, many of the flights arriving are expected to land late. However, there doesn't seem to be a massive impact on departures right now. Within the last hour, only a handful of departing flights were delayed, including EZY8605 to Pula, BA2604 to Rhodes, EZY8029 to Mahón, and VY6018 to A Coruña.

Notably, Gatwick Airport's airlines and passengers were previously relieved that the threat of bank holiday strikes was off after workers agreed on a pay deal. However, they have now been met with another challenge.

There are likely to be broader consequences. Shedding light, UK-based broadcaster Gabby Logan shared on X that she could be stuck in Hungary for half a day due to the situation.

Dublin Airport has also highlighted that ATC issues in the UK are resulting in delays to some flights into and out of the capital of Ireland. The airport has advised all passengers due to travel today to check the status of their flight with their carrier before flying. Meanwhile, Scotland's Edinburgh Airport has advised passengers not to come to the airport without checking their flight status.

Word from the airlines

Into the afternoon, other major airlines have notified their passengers of disruption. British Airways shared just after 15:00 BST that its flights are being severely disrupted by the issue, and it has had to make significant changes to their schedule. It noted that if passengers are traveling on a short-haul service today, don't head to the airport without checking the status of their flight first.

Furthermore, in typical Ryanair fashion, the low-cost carrier added that "due to another UK ATC failure, Ryanair will be forced to delay/cancel a number of flights to/from the UK today, Monday 28 Aug." It added that all passengers will be notified of their options to change flights free of charge to another service.

easyJet shared similar sentiments. The operator said that it is is also offering free transfers or a refund. It shared:

"The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is our highest priority and while these circumstances are outside of our control, we would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused and to reassure customers that we are doing everything possible to minimise the impact of the disruption."

NATS offered an update at 15:15 BST, stating that it had "identified and remedied the technical issue affecting our flight planning system this morning." It is now working with other carriers and airports to manage the flights that are impacted.

The group concluded that the flight planning issue "affected the system’s ability to automatically process flight plans, meaning that flight plans had to be processed manually which cannot be done at the same volume, hence the requirement for traffic flow restrictions."

Industry woes

ATC system outages aren't new in the industry. Just last summer, Canadian passengers were met with delays amid ATC issues. There have been other IT system glitches that have grounded aircraft recently, including the US NOTAM system failure in January.

According to data provided by Cirium, 3,049 flights were due to depart UK airports today, which equates to more than 540,000 seats. Moreover, 3,054 flights were scheduled to arrive in the UK - another 543,000 seats.

Altogether, NATS will be keen to find a solution to the issue as soon as possible. Regardless of how quickly it’s resolved, we can expect a butterfly effect.

What are your thoughts about this air traffic control fault? What do you make of the overall situation? Let us know what you think in the comment section.

Sources: Sky News; The Independent; Cirium