New NATS technical failure disrupts flights across UK

Flights across Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England were disrupted on Monday after National Air Traffic Services (NATS) experienced a technical problem at its Prestwick Centre in Scotland.

The issue forced NATS to introduce air traffic restrictions, affecting airports including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Belfast. NATS said the problem was resolved at around 10:30 BST and that restrictions were subsequently lifted, although delays and cancellations continued as airlines worked to recover their schedules.

NATS described the incident as a connectivity problem and stressed that it was unrelated to the major failure at its Swanwick centre on 8 September. That incident was traced to a software defect.

The latest disruption has nevertheless prompted renewed criticism from airlines. Ryanair said more than 25,000 of its passengers were affected and more than 140 flights delayed, while again calling for NATS CEO Martin Rolfe to resign. Jet2 and easyJet also criticised the resilience of the UK’s air traffic control infrastructure.

The incident comes just three days after NATS published its preliminary report into the 8 September failure, raising fresh questions about the resilience of the UK’s air traffic control network.