Travel Chaos at UK Airports as Air Traffic Control Glitch Cancels Over 1,000 Flights

Britain: It was a very bad day for air passengers in Britain on Tuesday. The entire schedule was disrupted due to a sudden technical glitch in the air traffic control system. According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, more than 1000 flights had to be cancelled. Passengers were seen worried everywhere from London Heathrow to small airports.

What went wrong in the air traffic system?

Britain's National Air Traffic Service (NATS) said that there was a glitch in their flight processing system. This system itself tells which flight will fly, when and which route it will take. When it sat down, there was chaos in the control room. The team of engineers immediately got to work. The good thing is that the airspace was not closed; otherwise, the situation would have been worse. Flights continued to fly but very slowly and manually; hence, delays increased.

Which airport was most affected?

London Heathrow was most affected, which is Britain's busiest airport. According to the report of FlightAware, about 100 flights were cancelled at Heathrow and 367 flights were delayed by several hours. Long lines of passengers formed in the terminal.

Gatwick Airport was in second place, where about 250 flights were delayed. This was 31 percent of the total flights there. Apart from this, the story was the same at Edinburgh, Luton, Birmingham, Aberdeen and Glasgow airports. Many flights had to be diverted to other airports.

How much loss did the airlines suffer?

Even big airlines were shocked by this failure. 96 flights of British Airways were cancelled. 92 flights of easyJet, 20 of KLM, 12 of Lufthansa and 11 of Swiss were cancelled. Thousands of passengers had to stay in hotels. Airlines also had to bear the expenses of rebooking and food.

What happened to the passengers of Air India?

This affected India also. Air India issued a statement saying that due to NATS malfunction, many flights to and from London have been delayed, diverted and cancelled. The airline said that the plane and crew could not arrive on time, so some flights may be affected for the next two days. Passengers were advised to check the flight status before going to the airport.

Is the system fixed or not?

Late in the evening, NATS said that the technical team has made the necessary fixes and the system is gradually becoming normal. But due to the cancellation of 1000 flights simultaneously, a backlog has been created. NATS itself admitted that there could be delays for the next few days as airlines would have to reset the entire schedule.