UK air traffic glitch hits major airports

A technical problem in the flight‑processing system used by National Air Traffic Services (NATS) triggered widespread disruption to air travel across the UK on 8 September 2026. The fault affected the handling of flight data, forcing restrictions on air traffic even as UK airspace remained open and some flights continued to depart.

The impact was felt most acutely at major hubs, where hundreds of services faced delays or cancellations. Departures from London Heathrow and London Gatwick were heavily disrupted, with flight schedules significantly curtailed while the underlying issue was being resolved.

Beyond Heathrow and Gatwick, disruption extended to other large UK airports including Manchester, Stansted, Luton, Birmingham, Aberdeen and Glasgow. Services connecting the UK with Ireland were also affected, with delays reported on flights to and from Dublin.

The constraints on air traffic led to a pattern of cancellations, extended delays and diversions. Some flights were rerouted to alternative UK and European airports to manage congestion and keep aircraft moving while capacity in the affected airspace was limited.

NATS stated that engineers were on site and working urgently to restore normal operations once the fault in the flight‑processing system was identified. While stressing that flights were still departing and that the airspace remained open, it warned that recovery would take time.

By late afternoon, NATS said a fix had been implemented and that systems were starting to recover. Later in the evening it reported that the system issue was resolved, that operations were running normally again, and that efforts were focused on clearing the backlog of affected flights.

The system outage created complex knock‑on effects for airlines, which faced displaced aircraft, crew scheduling challenges and limited take‑off and landing slots as they sought to stabilise operations. This led to continued delays even after the technical problem itself had been resolved.

Passengers experienced significant disruption, including extended waits in terminals and on aircraft as flights awaited clearance. Airlines and airports urged travellers to check their flight status before heading to the airport, warning that it would take time for schedules to normalise as the backlog of flights was worked through.