Flight delays at Birmingham after national systems failure

The UK's air traffic control systems have experienced a 'major failure', with reports suggesting the fault was 'network-wide'.

The issues affecting the UK's airspace were first reported by Loganair shortly before midday on Bank Holiday Monday. The airline posted: "There has been a network-wide failure of UK air traffic control computer systems this morning.

“Although we are hopeful of being able to operate most intra-Scotland flights on the basis of local co-ordination and with a minimum of disruption, north-south and international flights maybe subject to delays.

Birmingham Airport tweeted ten minutes ago that customers due in or out of BHX are advised to monitor latest information from their airlines, live flight data on their website and on screens in terminals.

To add to the confusion, the airport's =website appeared to go down just as the impact of the problems started to hit. It meant passengers were unable to access details of arrivals and departures or even reach its home page.

One frustrated traveller Damian Gear tweeted: "You can't get onto your website to check live updates. I'm on my way to the airport not knowing if my flight is delayed or not."

The airport added that it was "working to understand the impacts of a UK-wide air traffic control failure, and timescales for it to be fixed".

Flights from Birmingham to Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt and Munich were among those cancelled, while some others that did fly were facing delays of more than two hours.

In a statement, NATS said: "We are currently experiencing a technical issue and have applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety.

"Engineers are working to find and fix the fault. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause."

A Heathrow spokesperson said: "As a result of national airspace issues there is disruption to flights across the UK. Passengers are advised to check with their airline for the latest information.

"We are working closely with NATS and other airport partners to minimise the impact this has on passengers."

Meanwhile, airline Loganair warned customers they may experience delays as a "network-wide failure" has affected air-traffic control systems on Monday morning.

The Glasgow-based airline posted on X, formerly Twitter: "There has been a network-wide failure of UK air traffic control computer systems this morning.

"Although we are hopeful of being able to operate most intra-Scotland flights on the basis of local co-ordination and with a minimum of disruption, north-south and international flights maybe subject to delays.

"If you are flying with us today, please check our website for the latest information about your flight before setting off for the airport."

At Stansted, Ryanair passengers said they had been told to wait at their gate until further notice.

British Airways said in a statement: "We are working closely with NATS to understand the impact of a technical issue that is affecting UK airspace and will keep our customers up to date with the latest information."

Michele Robson, who used to work in air traffic control, said that it was "unusual" for failures to last this long.

She said: "There was a flight planning system failure this morning which affected both centres in the UK."

Speaking from Jersey Airport while waiting to fly to London, she said: "Now they have enough data for four hours for controllers to work normally. After that point, they have to go manual which means that they work at a much slower rate so they can handle far less aircraft.

"So it looks like there's been what they would call a zero rate put on, where it means that no aircraft can take off inbound to the UK or probably outbound. It would generally be them trying to land things that were already in the air.

"So at the moment, we're just sitting here with no definite takeoff time."

She said failures normally "only last a couple of hours".

"It's unusual for it to be off for this amount of time. So nobody really knows at this point how long it's going to take."

BBC presenter Gabby Logan said she had been caught up by the issue.

She posted on X: "On a plane on the runway at Budapest airport. After almost 3 weeks away from home I am hours from hugging my family.

"And have just been told UK airspace is shut. We could be here for 12 hours. So we sit on the plane and wait."