UK Air Traffic Control Failure Delays Flights and Disrupts Multiple Airports
Overview of the Air Traffic Control Failure and Its Impact
LONDON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Flights at several British airports were delayed on Monday due to an air traffic control failure, Britain's NATS air traffic control provider said, less than two weeks after a separate issue halted flights across the country.
Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast airports were experiencing delays, which NATS said was related to an issue at its Prestwick centre in Scotland, while London's Gatwick and City Airports said there would be some disruption.
Airline easyJet said it had cancelled some flights, while British Airways warned its customers that they were likely to experience disruption on Monday.
Details of the New Issue Behind Delays
NEW ISSUE BEHIND DELAYS
NATS said Monday's delays were "unrelated to the issue two weeks ago", when around 2,000 flights were cancelled due to a software defect.
"Airports south of Manchester are broadly unaffected, however flights heading north and flights departing Scottish airports are currently subject to some delay," NATS said in a statement.
Comparison to Previous Outages
A previous outage in August 2023 cost airlines £100 million ($133.81 million) and caused travel chaos. Ryanair, Europe's biggest airline, has been calling for NATS CEO Martin Rolfe to step down.
Airline Responses and Calls for Action
EasyJet said Monday's disruption, which did not appear to be as severe as the failure two weeks ago that delayed hundreds of thousands of people, underlined the weakness in the air traffic operator's systems.
"This, once again, calls into question the resilience of NATS' systems and demonstrates the need for firm actions to prevent these repeated failures," easyJet said.
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(Reporting by Sam Tobin and Sarah Young, editing by Paul Sandle)
