More than 1,000 flights were cancelled at UK airports on September 9, 2026, including London Heathrow Airport, London Gatwick Airport, Manchester Airport, and Birmingham Airport, due to a technical failure in the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) flight processing system.
Scope and Cause of Disruption
The technical failure originated from equipment issues at NATS headquarters in Swanwick near Southampton. The disruption affected both inbound and outbound flights, with cancellations recorded by 8 pm local time (19:00 GMT) according to FlightRadar24.
Official Statements and Industry Response
NATS initially stated: “We are investigating a technical issue which is causing some disruption to flight departures.” Later, they confirmed the fault was within their
flight processing system and announced, “Our system issue is now resolved, we are operating normally and working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights.” Ryanair’s COO Neal McMahon publicly criticized NATS CEO Martin Rolfe’s management during the failure, calling it “incompetence with yet another UK ATC System Failure.”
Travel Impact and Ongoing Recovery
Thousands of passengers were stranded or delayed due to the cancellations at major UK airports. The disruption also affected scheduled events, notably delaying Arsenal Football Club’s travel to Naples, Italy for their Champions League match against SSC Napoli, causing the team to arrive behind schedule after 9 pm local
time (20:00 GMT). While NATS resolved the issue, efforts to clear the flight backlog remain ongoing.
