A technical fault at the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) Prestwick Centre caused air traffic restrictions on the morning of 21 September 2026, disrupting flights across Scotland, Northern Ireland, and northern England. The fault was identified as a connectivity issue within NATS’s systems network specific to its Scottish operations. It was resolved by about 10:30 BST, with safety-focused air traffic regulations applied during the disruption.
Fault Details and System Recovery
NATS, which manages about 42% of UK air traffic from its Prestwick Centre covering northern England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, confirmed the connectivity fault was unrelated to the software defect that caused the UK-wide disruption
on 8 September. In a statement at 10:44 BST, NATS said, “this was a connectivity issue with part of our systems network, specific to the operation in Scotland,” and stressed it had “nothing to do with the problem we had earlier this month.” By 14:36 BST, NATS declared, “the system is fixed and we are running at full capacity,” and committed to working with airlines to recover residual delays.
A NATS spokesperson told the BBC, “In the real world we accept technology can and sometimes does fail. Our job is minimising disruption where possible. What isn’t acceptable is any incident
where safety is compromised—this is always our first priority.” No technical details about the affected network components, use of backup systems, or manual procedures were released.
Flight Delays, Cancellations, and Affected Airports
Flight disruptions concentrated in airports across Scotland and northern England. Glasgow and Edinburgh airports experienced delays, while Manchester Airport saw delays of up to one hour on some flights, per Manchester Airports Group. Highlands and Islands Airports reported schedule disturbances across its 11 regional airports. Belfast City Airport canceled several arrivals and departures, including routes to Manchester, Amsterdam, and London City.
Airports further south also reported impacts. Bristol Airport attributed some cancellations and delays
to the Prestwick fault. London City Airport, Luton, and Gatwick airports experienced varying levels of disruption to departures and arrivals.
According to aviation analytics company Cirium as of 13:45 BST, approximately 200 UK flights were canceled or did not operate on 21 September 2026. Among those, easyJet canceled 47 of 670 scheduled departures, and British Airways canceled 11 of 513. Ryanair reported delays on more than 140 flights affecting over 25,000 passengers.
Airlines’ Reactions and Industry Commentary
Ryanair disputed NATS’s description of the fault, claiming the “same flight data processing system has failed once more” and called for the resignation of NATS CEO Martin Rolfe.
Neal McMahon, Ryanair’s Chief Operations Officer, criticized NATS’s previous assurances saying, “Martin Rolfe’s report claimed that another failure was ‘unlikely’ and that NATS could recover more quickly if one occurred. Those claims have been exposed as completely worthless.”
easyJet criticized the incident as casting doubt on NATS’s system resilience, while British Airways described it as “yet another technical fault with NATS” that was beyond its control. Jet2 CEO Steve Heapy questioned, “How many more failures do customers and airlines have to deal with?” and indicated the airline would bill NATS for disruption costs. Wizz Air UK’s managing director Yvonne Moynihan
described the situation as a “national confidence crisis” in NATS.
Tim Alderslade, CEO of Airlines UK, called air traffic control “critical national infrastructure” and said the forthcoming civil aviation bill “must address the underlying weaknesses in the system so that these failures stop happening.”
Government and Regulatory Responses
UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander stated on social media that “engineers have fixed the problem and systems are resuming,” acknowledging the disruption following the recent failure on 8 September. The Scottish First Minister John Swinney affirmed that the Scottish Government would engage with NATS to address the issues arising from the fault.
The earlier 8 September
software fault that affected London Area Control at the Swanwick Centre caused over 2,000 flight delays, cancellations, or diversions across the UK. The Civil Aviation Authority commissioned an independent review of that incident; however, it remains unclear whether this ongoing review will encompass the Prestwick Centre fault of 21 September. NATS provided a preliminary report on the 8 September failure on 18 September and has not yet indicated if it will release a similar report regarding the recent connectivity fault.
