Up to 1,000 flights were cancelled on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, across 15 UK airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, and Birmingham due to a failure in the UK’s air traffic control provider Nats’ flight data processing system.
The disruption grounded departures and restricted arrivals at major hubs, affecting airports in Scotland and Ireland as well. FlightRadar24 reported the widespread cancellations following the system fault.
Airline Flight Cancellations and Passenger Delays
British Airways cancelled or diverted more than 100 flights on the afternoon of September 8. EasyJet reported about 200 cancellations, while Ryanair said over 65,000 passengers faced delays of up to eight hours.
Passengers flying with
Virgin Atlantic and other carriers also experienced extended delays and diversions, with Heathrow-bound flights rerouted to other UK and European airports.
Operational Impact at Heathrow and Gatwick
Departures at Heathrow were paused around midday (approximately 12:00 BST) and then resumed temporarily before further disruptions resumed later in the afternoon. Thirteen flights originally scheduled for Heathrow were diverted to alternative airports due to gate unavailability caused by grounded aircraft.
Arrivals were also limited as continued delays reduced space on the ground. Gatwick Airport experienced similar issues, with passengers like Phil White delayed on a plane waiting on the tarmac for hours as controllers awaited updated flight information.
Technical Cause and Recovery Efforts
The incident was traced to a fault in Nats’ flight data processing system, which manages flight plans and operational data for air traffic controllers. This failure is distinct from a separate system outage that occurred in 2023.
Nats implemented a fix during the day, leading to gradual recovery of the flight system; however, delays were expected to continue into Wednesday, September 9, due to backlogs.
Passenger Impact and Official Responses
Passengers faced extended waits on aircraft parked on taxiways due to gate shortages. Chloe Davis, delayed on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Heathrow scheduled for 13:40 BST, reported planes were parked on taxiways with limited
information from controllers.
British Airways advised customers not to travel to airports if their flight was cancelled and noted that call centres were overwhelmed as the airline worked to update and rebook passengers.
Nats CEO Martin Rolfe apologized for the disruption and pledged a full investigation into the cause. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander confirmed the system failure was not caused by a cyber attack and summoned Rolfe for a meeting on September 9 to demand assurances that lessons will be learned and that the aviation system will be reliable.
