According to a report by the British newspaper The Guardian on September 8, due to technical failures, many flights at British airports were grounded for several hours, resulting in the cancellation of over 1,000 flights. Airlines are calling for a comprehensive reform of the air traffic control system; this is the third time in more than three years that such an incident has occurred.
The malfunction was caused by a “technical issue” with the British air traffic control service provider Nats. Flightradar24, a flight monitoring website, reported that as of 8 p.m. on the 8th, more than 1,000 flights had been cancelled at various British airports. The incident began around 1 p.m., affecting many major airports in the UK, including Heathrow and Gatwick, with departing flights also being affected.
Nats first issued a statement at 1:46 PM, stating that they were 'investigating a technical issue that caused confusion during the flight departure.' At 4:40 PM, the service provider confirmed that the problem was related to the flight processing system and announced that corrective measures had been taken.
Since the failure occurred until Nats announced that the problem had been found and fixed, and the flight processing system was restarted, nearly four hours have passed. During this time, flights scheduled to depart from various airports in the UK were unable to leave the airport. Chaos also spread to most of the southern parts of England where incoming flights were affected.
Nats said that he was continuing to assist airlines and airports in recovering from the chaos. He also added, "This is an extremely complex recovery process, which has brought significant difficulties to the entire aviation network. It will take some time to complete the recovery."
Flights were canceled and delayed until late night on the 8th. British Airways stated that the disruption would affect operations on September 9th, and offered passengers free rebooking options for flights scheduled for the 11th.
EasyJet announced that the chain of events affected flights across Europe. Data from FlightRadar24 shows that as of 5 p.m., EasyJet canceled 137 flights, British Airways canceled 111 flights, Royal Dutch Airlines canceled 26 flights, European Wings canceled 22 flights, and Ryanair canceled 21 flights.
Ryanair updated its data that evening, stating that more than 65,000 passengers experienced delays, and 50 flights were canceled. Media such as The Guardian reported that the total number of passengers affected exceeded 'tens of thousands'.
A Nats spokesperson stated on the 8th that this malfunction is not of the same type as those that caused two malfunctions in 2023 and 2025. The spokesperson also said, “The system has just begun to recover.” She added, “We are continuing to work closely with airlines and airport customers to advance the recovery process. We apologize for the inconvenience caused to passengers today, and travelers should continue to check with airlines for the latest information.”
NATS CEO Martin Rolf expressed "deep sympathy" to "everyone affected by the chaos". He said: "We absolutely did not want this kind of incident to happen. I fully understand how frustrating this must be for passengers."
At the same time, he claimed that “such situations are relatively rare”. During the interview that evening, he also said: “We have resolved the issue and restored the system to normal operation. However, there is a large amount of chaos accumulated in the system. We are currently working closely with airlines and airports to make every effort possible overnight to ensure that as many people as possible can travel.”
After three or more incidents attributed to its system occurred within three years, the airline once again called for a complete overhaul of Nats. Ryanair called for Rolf's resignation.
The airline's Chief Operating Officer, Neil McMahon, said, “Families going on holidays, business travelers, and thousands of tourists visiting England once again paid the price for Nat’s lamentable failures.” He believes that the government should ‘stop making excuses for Nat’s repeated failures and appoint a new leader who is capable of managing the UK’s air traffic control system.’
Viz Air also stated: "Key national infrastructure providers should not repeatedly cause aviation systems to be paralyzed. Nats is currently not competent to fulfill its responsibilities."
