UK air traffic resumes after technical fault disrupts major airports

Outbound flights from UK airports were particularly disrupted. Reports indicated that London Gatwick Airport was unable to process departures until further notice. Other facilities such as London Stansted and Liverpool faced similar restrictions. Some inbound flights were held at their departure points due to uncertainty about when normal operations would resume.

The situation caused ripple effects beyond the UK, with concerns that ongoing delays could affect European operations as flight crews became displaced. Passengers on delayed flights remained onboard while awaiting updates; according to a BBC reporter on an easyJet flight bound for Budapest from Gatwick, passengers received water from cabin crew while waiting.

NATS later announced that engineers had restored the affected system and were resuming normal operations in the London area. A company spokesperson said: "Our engineers have now restored the system that was affected this afternoon, [and] we are in the process of resuming normal operations in the London area." Despite progress, airlines warned that recovery would be gradual and some disruptions would persist.

British Airways reported widespread impact across its network with several diversions, including an Aberdeen-to-Heathrow service rerouted to Newcastle. Virgin Atlantic diverted a Lagos-to-London flight to Paris.

This event follows a similar incident in August 2023 when an ATC outage delayed more than 700,000 passengers after an incorrectly filed French bee flight plan led to widespread disruption (https://simpleflying.com/uk-caa-2023-nats-meltdown-cost-airlines-82-million/). An independent report estimated total costs of that previous meltdown reached up to $125 million.