U.K. airports stabilize after radar glitch, travellers urged to check flights

Travellers across Europe were left stranded at the height of summer holidays on Wednesday (July 30) after a technical glitch at U.K airports led to flight cancellations and diversions — with some aircraft forced to turn back mid-flight and return to their departure airports.

Reports say a malfunction in the radar system was behind yesterday’s air traffic disruption, which grounded air planes across Britain. Reports say that flight delays could potentially last for several more days.

The technical glitch resulted in air traffic controllers receiving incomplete data about the airspace after the software responsible for displaying that information on their monitors failed, officials said.  

The issue resulted in disruptions at major airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and Manchester.

Airlines are seeking answers following the cancellation of more than 150 flights and the grounding of thousands of others, reports the BBC.

Nats, the air traffic control company in charge of Britain’s skies, apologized for the glitch, saying it took 20 minutes to resolve the issue by switching to a back-up system, and systems were fully operational within an hour.

A spokesperson for Heathrow Airport told the BBC that operations were running normally on Thursday (July 31). However, the airport’s website showed that 10 flights—four departures and six arrivals—were cancelled that morning.

Flight schedules at other major U.K. airports were also stabilizing. Stansted Airport reported normal operations, while a spokesperson for Gatwick described the situation as “stable.”

At Manchester Airport, three outbound and three inbound flights were cancelled, but a spokesperson said they were being reworked into the schedule without causing disruptions to other services.

Ryanair has also confirmed that all of its flights were operating as usual on Thursday.

Yesterday’s air traffic control shutdown brings to mind the major Nats outage in the summer of 2023.

That incident, which also struck during the busy holiday season, left over 700,000 passengers stranded after a technical fault forced widespread flight cancellations.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander met NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe on Thursday morning to understand exactly what happened yesterday.

On social media, she later acknowledged that disruptions were "frustrating for passengers,” and she was receiving regular updates.

"This was an isolated event and there is no evidence of malign activity," she said on X. "Passengers should check with airlines before travelling."

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