A fault at NATS’ Swanwick facility on Wednesday forced air traffic controllers to slow down activity in the skies around London. The issue, which NATS said was radar-related, meant they had to limit how many planes could fly. This affected services at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, and other airports.
At 4:05pm, NATS confirmed that a problem had been found. Twenty minutes later, engineers had repaired the affected system. NATS then began restoring services in the London area. Operations picked up again, and by 5:10pm, flights had resumed. Airports started working through the backlog of passengers and planes.
More than 150 flights were cancelled, and delays built up across the UK. British Airways was badly affected, cutting flights from 45 to 32 per hour for over two hours. While this played out, many passengers waited in terminals without actual updates.
This was not the first time NATS has had this kind of problem. A similar breakdown in August last year forced staff to switch to manual processing of flight plans. Hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled. That incident affected around 700,000 passengers.
How Were Passengers Affected On The Ground?
For travellers, the interruption felt chaotic. Some had no clue what was going on until their flight disappeared from the screen. John Carr was one of them. He was heading to Norway for his brother’s wedding. “I’m pretty gutted,” he said from Heathrow. He had been eating dinner when he saw his flight had been cancelled.
Airports struggled to update people fast enough and Gatwick said outbound flights were affected across the country. Incoming planes were either diverted or made to wait in the air. Stansted said many flights were caught up in the problem. Passengers were told to speak to their airlines.
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At Heathrow’s Terminal 5, people stood around watching the boards. Confusion spread as gate numbers vanished or reappeared. Some had to book hotel rooms. Others tried to find new flights. In a few cases, holiday plans were completely scrapped.
For airlines, it became a logistical problem. Crews missed their slots. Baggage handlers and ground staff were left unsure where to send luggage. Every part of the airport system was affected. Even those flights that did take off were hours behind schedule.
What Are Airlines Saying About It?
Ryanair did not hold back. In a statement released on Wednesday, it blamed NATS CEO Martin Rolfe for the failure and called on him to resign. The airline said thousands of passengers had been left stranded because of poor leadership and called the incident “outrageous”.
Neal McMahon, Ryanair’s chief operating officer, said the same thing had happened last year. He accused NATS of failing to learn from previous mistakes. He said people were tired of waiting for change and called on the UK’s Transport Minister, Heidi Alexander, to take action.
Ryanair also said NATS should cover the costs of cancelled flights and delays. It said airlines and passengers should not be left to pay for something out of their control. For those travelling with children or heading out on long-awaited holidays, the delay came at the worst possible time.
easyJet also spoke out, and its chief operating officer, David Morgan, called the fault “extremely disappointing”. He said the airline was focusing on helping customers but added that questions needed to be asked about how this had happened again.
