A technical issue that affected air traffic control services at more than a number of UK airports, resulting in the cancellation of hundreds of flights, has been “resolved”, according to the provider.
Dozens of flights in and out of Dublin Airport were affected, with airport operator DAA saying airlines had cancelled 43 outbound and 30 inbound flights on Tuesday.
Nats, which provides air traffic control services to 15 UK airports, said its recovery from the technical issue, which forced the cancellation of more than 400 flights, had “taken longer than we had hoped” but is “resolved”.
Delayed passengers waiting with their luggage in Terminal 3 of London Heathrow Airport on Tuesday evening as a result of an air traffic control issue. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images
“We are operating normally and working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights,” it said in a statement at 7.30pm. “We are truly sorry for the ongoing flight disruption. We know this is hugely frustrating and apologise unreservedly. Passengers should continue to check with their airline.”
Passenger Update – 17.00
Due to air traffic control issues in the UK, some flights in and out of Dublin Airport are subject to delays this evening.
As of 5pm, airlines have cancelled 23 outbound and 21 inbound flights. Further disruption is possible as the evening goes on.… pic.twitter.com/G6OCMOWRXg
— Dublin Airport (@DublinAirport) September 8, 2026
Tens of thousands of passengers faced disruption as a result of the outage, which had led to around 425 flights to and from UK airports being cancelled as of 5pm. Airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Edinburgh and Stansted were impacted.
Ryanair said more than 65,000 of its passengers had been disrupted and it had cancelled more than 50 scheduled flights.
British Airways s0aid it was forced to cancel or divert more than 100 flights on Tuesday which had impacted “tens of thousands of customers”.
ℹ️ Technical issue
We have identified that the issue was in our flight processing system. Our engineers are on site and working urgently to resume normal operations as quickly as possible. We recognise the ongoing disruption to travel, for which we sincerely apologise. (1/3) https://t.co/T9tF7j31e1
— NATS (@NATS) September 8, 2026
Budget airline EasyJet said some of its flights were “unable to operate” following the issue which was causing delays to flights across Europe.
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In a post on X, UK transport secretary Heidi Alexander said she was “seeking assurances that lessons will be learned and systems that support aviation are up to the job” following the disruption.
She said she gave her “huge thanks” for those working to “get people moving”.