Heathrow Airport says departures have resumed after an air traffic control issue shut down most of the UK's airports on Tuesday evening. According to Flightradar24, more than 1,000 flights have been cancelled at UK airports due to the earlier technical issue at National Air Traffic Services (Nats).
Widespread cancellations and delays
Tracking data from the site shows the stark contrast between inbound air traffic around 8pm on Monday. More than 65,000 Ryanair passengers alone have been impacted by the cancellations and chaos. According to Eurocontrol, 590 flights overall in the southern UK airspace (London ACC) were impacted by the disruptions at peak times.
At Heathrow, 214 departing flights were cancelled and 180 departing flights were delayed today, as of 8.30pm, according to tracker site FlightAware. Nats has warned recovery from disruptions to flights will "take some time", with tens of thousands of people said to be affected by the chaos which was spread across multiple airports across the UK.
Heathrow statement and advice
Heathrow Airport said that "disruption is expected to continue" due to the earlier technical issue at National Air Traffic Services. Arrivals remain suspended for the remainder of today, the statement adds. Passengers are told to check with their airline for the latest flight information before travelling to the airport.
They said in a statement: "Due to the earlier technical issue affecting @NATS arrivals into Heathrow have been suspended for the remainder of Tuesday 8 September to ensure the safety of our passengers and colleagues."
"Departures have resumed, but disruption is expected to continue, so we advise passengers to check with their airline for the latest flight information before travelling to the airport. We apologise to those affected and are supporting our local NATS team and airline partners as they work through the resulting disruption."
Further cancellations expected
Passengers have been urged to check the latest flight information with their airlines, while airports apologised for the disruption caused. FlightRadar24's director of communications, Ian Petchenik, told the Press Association: "It's going to be major disruption not necessarily based on cancellations alone but certainly cancellations and delays including connecting flights."
"The 4% statistic is certainly much higher than normal but overall isn't a huge impact on operations quite yet. I think we will start to see a further wave of cancellations. It sounds like Nats has resolved the issue but once the damage has been done it takes a little time to unwind, so I think we'll start to see cancellations increase for a while then decrease." The initial report of the problem emerged through Eurocontrol at 1.17pm, Mr Petchenik said.
