Britain · 09 September, 2026 · 3 min read
NATS Technical Failure Disrupts Travel Across Britain, Cancels More Than 1,000 Flights
NATS flight-processing system fault caused over 1,000 flights canceled across UK airports. Major hubs like Heathrow and Gatwick faced widespread cancellations and disruption into Wednesday.
Air-traffic system problem: resolved but disruption persists.
8 of 9 outlets skipped it: direct impact on Galicia: two Vueling flights to/from Heathrow cancelled.
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Same story, two versions
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BBC
“Nats issue from earlier today is fixed but "flight disruption is expected to continue for the rest of the day".”Read the original ↗
Al Jazeera
““This has been a very complex recovery and has created difficulties for the whole aviation network, from which it will take time to recover,” it said in an X post late on Tuesday.”Read the original ↗
BBC emphasises continued passenger disruption; Al Jazeera stresses network-wide recovery complexity.
NATS glitch triggers cancellations
A technical failure in the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) flight processing system disrupted travel across Britain on Tuesday, canceling more than 1,000 flights and leaving passengers stranded for hours on airport runways and in terminals, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar24.
“canceling more than 1,000 flights”
The disruption rippled across 15 U.K. airports and beyond after NATS said it had resolved a problem in its flight processing system in the evening, but delays continued as airlines and airports worked to clear a huge backlog of delayed flights.
At Gatwick, Josie Donoghue spent three hours stuck on a plane before her Ryanair flight to Ireland was canceled, and she described getting through the airport as “like trying to get out of Alcatraz.”
Departures at London Heathrow resumed, but the busy airport suspended arrivals for the rest of the night because of the disruption and warned of further delays, while British Airways said it was forced to cancel or divert more than 100 flights.
On Wednesday, Al Jazeera reported that more than 150 flights were scrapped nationwide, with FlightRadar24 saying at least 177 flights scheduled for Wednesday had already been canceled, nearly all at Britain’s busiest airport Heathrow in London.A
Airlines and officials trade blame
NATS said it was still working to resolve disruption following a “system issue,” and in an X post late on Tuesday it said, “This has been a very complex recovery and has created difficulties for the whole aviation network, from which it will take time to recover,” while also apologising to passengers.
Ryanair called for the resignation of Martin Rolfe, the CEO of NATS, and in a video posted on X its Chief Operations Officer Neal McMahon said, “despite promises, reports and assurances that they would fix the systems, once again NATS, under Martin Rolfe’s leadership have failed UK travellers.”
The BBC reported that Wizz Air branded Nats “simply not fit for purpose in its current form” after a technical issue caused hundreds of cancelled flights, and it said the airline was “extremely disappointed” that “another Nats technical failure” had caused widespread disruption.B
In response, NATS said its “system issue is now resolved, we are operating normally and working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights,” and the UK Civil Aviation Authority said it would consider whether reforms were needed to secure reliability.
The BBC also described passengers continuing to face cancellations and delays into the evening, including Leeds Bradford Airport canceling four flights so far due to the national issue and expecting five further flights to leave later that day.B
Backlog and wider travel impact
Even after NATS said the problem was resolved, the disruption left aircraft and crews out of position across the UK network, meaning airlines still needed to reposition aircraft, crews and passengers while clearing delayed flights, according to Gulf News.
“returned to normal at 7.30pm UK time on September 8”
Gulf News reported that NATS said its flight-processing system had returned to normal at 7.30pm UK time on September 8, but warned that the disruption would continue to affect operations as airlines worked to clear the backlog.
The BBC said East Midlands Airport expected to operate a “full flight schedule” on Wednesday, while also warning that the airport may be busier due to rescheduled flights, and it noted that flight disruption was expected to continue for the rest of the day.B
In Spain, El Correo Gallego said the UK incident also hit Galicia, with two Vueling flights connected to London Heathrow—VY7112 from Santiago to the English capital and VY7113 from Heathrow to Santiago—canceled, affecting hundreds of passengers scheduled to travel between the Galician capital and the United Kingdom.
In the same wider picture, El Economista reported that Eurocontrol foresaw problems until 21:00 at Heathrow, and it said more than 425 flights were canceled on Tuesday afternoon due to the incident, with easyJet and British Airways the most affected.