Issue with UK air traffic control system ‘identified and remedied’
The national air traffic services (Nats) said they have identified and fixed the technical issues that caused a network-wide failure for air traffic control systems this morning.
In a statement on their website, Nats said:
We have identified and remedied the technical issue affecting our flight planning system this morning. We are now working closely with airlines and airports to manage the flights affected as efficiently as possible.
Our engineers will be carefully monitoring the system’s performance as we return to normal operations.
The flight planning issue affected the system’s ability to automatically process flight plans, meaning that flight plans had to be processed manually which cannot be done at the same volume, hence the requirement for traffic flow restrictions.
Our priority is always to ensure that every flight in the UK remains safe and we are sincerely sorry for the disruption this is causing. Please contact your airline for information on how this may affect your flight.
Airline passengers have been warned that flight disruption could persist for days, after a technical meltdown in UK air traffic control left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded or delayed on the summer bank holiday.
The transport secretary, Mark Harper, said that despite the technical issue being resolved “flights are still unfortunately affected”.
The national air traffic services (Nats) said they have identified and fixed the technical issues that caused a network-wide failure for air traffic control systems this morning.
A British journalist who faces being stuck in France for up to six days due to the technical issue affecting air traffic control systems said there is uncertainty over who will pay for the extended stay.
The Irish transport minister, Jack Chambers, has warned of a major knock-on effect on flights to and from Ireland as a consequence of the UK air traffic control fault, PA reports.
The BBC presenter Gabby Logan tweeted that she was stuck on a plane on a runway at Budapest airport and passengers had been told they might be waiting for up to 12 hours.
Airline passengers have been warned that flight disruption could persist for days, after a technical meltdown in UK air traffic control left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded or delayed on the summer bank holiday.
Luke McLaughlin, a Guardian Sport sub-editor and writer, described arriving at London City airport to “try his luck” after his flight to Zurich was cancelled.
“I was booked on a Swiss flight from London City to Zurich which was cancelled this afternoon”, he said on Monday. “I was on my way to the airport – but having checked live departures I decided there was no point in carrying on as everything was cancelled.
“Then my aunt informed me they had been rebooked from London City to Geneva tonight, then to Zurich tomorrow morning at 6am. (Swiss had rebooked me on a flight via Lisbon arriving tomorrow night at 22.30, eight hours after the family funeral that I was trying to get to ...)
“I decided to come to the airport and try my luck – having been told by two different staff there was no hope of getting on the flight as it was overbooked, a third very helpful member of staff made a call and sorted it out so am now boarding for Geneva. Whether there will be a hotel room tonight I don’t know before going to Zurich early tomorrow.
“My elderly mum has been stuck at Heathrow for hours and says BA have been completely unhelpful and she is about to give up ... while my sister has been booked on a BA flight by Swiss tomorrow from Heathrow, so fingers crossed for that.
“Not a good day for it to happen with so many of our family trying to get to Zurich and a lot of confusion and frustration among passengers.”
A German couple are considering returning home by train after their flight from London to Stuttgart was cancelled amid chaos in the UK’s air traffic control system.
Myria Mebold, 36, also said that British Airways “didn’t know anything at all” when she and her husband asked about the situation and their flight.
She told PA Media: “We are waiting for any information and checking if we can go back by train or anything, I don’t know. Somehow we have to get back home.”
Asked if BA was helpful, she replied: “No, they didn’t know anything at all. They said the system doesn’t work and they can’t give any information and we have to come back at 6pm and maybe then they can give more information.
“It was a nice day in London but now it is starting to get annoying.”
She said the flight had been delayed to leave the UK after 1am on Tuesday, but planes cannot land at Stuttgart during the night.
Thousands of passengers have been hit by delays and cancellations caused by air traffic control technical problems. But what legal rights do they have?
Under UK law, those affected have legal rights that oblige the airlines to provide support to customers flying from a UK airport, arriving in the country on an EU or UK airline, or arriving at an EU airport on a UK airline.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) website says that in the case of a “significant delay”, the airline must provide a reasonable amount of food and drink, commonly in the form of vouchers, refunds for the cost of calls, and accommodation for passengers stuck overnight and transport to a hotel or their home.
Queues at Bergerac Dordogne Perigord airport, where journalist Rory Dollard and his family are suffering delays. Photograph: Rory Dollard/PA
A significant delay is defined as more than two hours for a short-haul flight of under 1,500km (930 miles), more than three hours for medium haul of up to 3,500km, and more than four hours for long-haul flights.
The CAA accepts airlines are sometimes unable to organise such support, so passengers should make their own “reasonable” arrangements and keep receipts to claim money back, but the authority adds that “luxury hotels and alcohol” are unlikely to be paid for.
Airlines are required to pay compensation if flights arrive more than three hours late, but only when it is their fault, meaning the air traffic control problems could fall under the definition of “exceptional circumstances”, meaning the carriers are exempt from paying out.
UK air passengers faced flight delays and cancellations on Monday after the national air traffic service was hit by a technical glitch and restrictions were placed on UK airspace. The glitch was later resolved but it continued to affect departures from and arrivals to UK airports.
Read our full explainer of why flights were disrupted and whether passengers can get refunds:
Flights "are still unfortunately affected”, Transport Secretary reveals
The transport secretary, Mark Harper, said that despite the technical issue being resolved “flights are still unfortunately affected”.
He tweeted that he would “encourage all passengers to read the UK Civil Aviation Authority’s guidance & be aware of their rights when flights are delayed or cancelled”.
Despite @NATS resolving the technical issue behind today’s air traffic control issues, flights are still unfortunately affected.
I’d encourage all passengers to read @UK_CAA’s guidance & be aware of their rights when flights are delayed or cancelled 👇 https://t.co/K4coeXbUCX
A British journalist who faces being stuck in France for up to six days due to the technical issue affecting air traffic control systems said there is uncertainty over who will pay for the extended stay.
Rory Dollard, 40, a cricket correspondent for PA Media, said he and other passengers stuck at Bergerac Dordogne Périgord airport have heard “absolutely nothing” about what caused the technical fault, which led to his Ryanair flight not taking off.
He added that he was told it may take up to six days before he and wife, Joanne, 40, and children Emily, 10, and Arthur, eight, can return home to Skipton, North Yorkshire.
He said: “I’ve never been in a situation like this before and because of the language barrier, it’s hard to work out exactly who’s responsible for which part of the cost.
“If you need to find a hotel for the next five/six nights, who’s paying for this? Is it Ryanair? Is it your insurer? Is it somebody else?”
He added that he could miss covering three England matches, while his wife, who is a social worker, could face delays to “important cases”.
Flights will remain “significantly disrupted” for the rest of Monday despite the technical issue with air traffic control being resolved, a spokesperson for Heathrow airport said.
According to PA, they said:
We ask passengers to only travel to the airport if their flight is confirmed as still operating.
Teams across Heathrow are working as hard as they can to minimise the knock-on impacts and assist those whose journeys have been affected.
Britain’s track and field stars are among those who have been hit by the significant flight delays after their brilliant performance at the World Athletics Championships.
The team had planned to head home from Budapest after winning 10 medals – their joint-best ever in the event. However, as the squad arrived at Budapest Ferenc Liszt airport to check in they learned they flight back had been cancelled.
It means about half the squad of athletes, coaches and support staff – about 30 people in total – have had to find a hotel for the night and are still unsure when they will get home.
UK flights disruption an 'evolving' situation, says Suella Braverman – video
The home secretary, Suella Braverman, said she sympathised with anyone affected by the air traffic control problems, PA reports.
She said:
This issue is evolving right now, as we speak. What we do know is that there has been a national outage at national air traffic control and that this has affected UK airspace.
It will affect all incoming and outgoing flights and also those aircraft which are in the UK airspace right now.
I am very cognisant that this will disrupt people’s travel plans – those who are waiting to arrive in the UK, those waiting to depart, and I do sympathise with any disruption they may be experiencing.
The transport secretary, Mark Harper, said the technical issues affecting UK air traffic control systems have now been resolved, but urged passengers to still contact their airline for specific flight information.
In a tweet, he said:
The technical issue affecting Nats has now been resolved. Aviation minister Charlotte Vere and I are continuing to work with Nats to help them manage affected flights and support passengers.
All passengers should still contact their airline for specific flight information.
The technical issue affecting @NATS has now been resolved.
Aviation Minister @CharlotteV and I are continuing to work with NATS to help them manage affected flights and support passengers.
All passengers should still contact their airline for specific flight information. https://t.co/IWgZJlXl91
Issue with UK air traffic control system ‘identified and remedied’
The national air traffic services (Nats) said they have identified and fixed the technical issues that caused a network-wide failure for air traffic control systems this morning.
In a statement on their website, Nats said:
We have identified and remedied the technical issue affecting our flight planning system this morning. We are now working closely with airlines and airports to manage the flights affected as efficiently as possible.
Our engineers will be carefully monitoring the system’s performance as we return to normal operations.
The flight planning issue affected the system’s ability to automatically process flight plans, meaning that flight plans had to be processed manually which cannot be done at the same volume, hence the requirement for traffic flow restrictions.
Our priority is always to ensure that every flight in the UK remains safe and we are sincerely sorry for the disruption this is causing. Please contact your airline for information on how this may affect your flight.
Mark Harper, the transport secretary, has said the UK airspace remains open but traffic flow restrictions are in place.
In the tweet, he added:
Nats [national air traffic services] is working at pace to fix this and aviation minister Charlotte Vere and I are doing all we can to support them.
In the meantime, passengers should contact their airline for up-to-date flight information.
UK airspace remains open but traffic flow restrictions are in place.@NATS is working at pace to fix this and Aviation Minister @CharlotteV and I are doing all we can to support them.
In the meantime, passengers should contact their airline for up to date flight information. https://t.co/RxqPhicsbK
Air traffic controllers inputting flight plans manually, causing significant delays
The latest update from national air traffic services (Nats) said controllers are having to input flight plans manually due to a fault with its systems.
It apologised for the disruption caused by the failure, which is causing significant delays at UK airports.
In a statement, Nats said:
This morning’s technical issue is affecting our ability to automatically process flight plans.
Until our engineers have resolved this, flight plans are being input manually which means we cannot process them at the same volume, hence we have applied traffic flow restrictions.
Our technical experts are looking at all possible solutions to rectify this as quickly as possible.
Our priority is ensuring every flight in the UK remains safe and doing everything we can to minimise the impact.
Please contact your airline for information on how this may affect your flight. We are sincerely sorry for the disruption this is causing.
PA reports that Ryanair and Aer Lingus have cancelled a number of flights out of and returning to Dublin airport as a result of air traffic control issues in the UK.
Services are also understood to be affected at Cork. The Aer Lingus airline said:
Due to a failure of the UK air traffic control flight planning systems, which is outside of Aer Lingus’ control, there are severe restrictions on all flights into the UK and flying over UK airspace today.
We would ask you to check the status of your flight before coming to the airport today as delays and cancellations are likely.”
Ryanair said:
Due to another UK ATC failure, Ryanair will be forced to delay/cancel a number of flights to/from the UK today, August 28. All affected passengers will be notified of their options to change flights (free of charge) to another Ryanair flight or receive a full refund.
We sincerely apologise for this UK ATC failure which is beyond Ryanair’s control and is affecting all airlines operating to/from the UK.”
