KABUL (Pajhwok): A technical glitch in the UK’s air traffic control system has caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled or delayed at several major airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted.
UK air traffic services provider NATS said the problem occurred in its flight data processing system but had since been resolved and the system had returned to normal. The company said flight safety had not been compromised during the disruption, Reuters reported.
According to flight-tracking website Flightradar24, about 1,300 arriving and departing flights at UK airports were cancelled on Tuesday, while another 177 flights were cancelled for Wednesday, most of them at Heathrow Airport.
FlightAware data showed that by Tuesday afternoon, about 490 departing flights at six airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Luton, Edinburgh and Bristol, had been delayed. About 525 arriving flights at the airports had also been cancelled or delayed.
Heathrow Airport said arriving flights had been suspended for the rest of Tuesday, while departing flights had resumed. However, the airport warned that the impact of the disruption would continue for some time.
Ryanair said about 150,000 of its passengers had faced delays of up to eight hours and more than 200 of its flights had been cancelled. Following the disruption, the airline called for NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority said it expected NATS to provide a full report on the incident to determine whether further measures were needed to improve the reliability of the country’s air traffic control system.
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