Summary
Airlines and airports in the UK are expecting flight delays on Wednesday due to a recent technical problem with air traffic control systems. The issue, which grounded flights for around 20 minutes, has been fixed, but there is a backlog of flights to manage.
Key Facts
- A technical issue in the UK air traffic control system caused flights to be grounded temporarily.
- The glitch affected airports like Heathrow, Stanstead, Manchester, and Edinburgh.
- The air traffic control system is operated by NATS and was down for about 20 minutes.
- After the issue was resolved, NATS stated that departures resumed and they were working to clear the backlog safely.
- Airports and airlines advised passengers to check flight statuses due to possible delays.
- This is the second major outage NATS has experienced in two years; the previous outage affected over 700,000 customers.
- Ryanair's chief operating officer criticized the disruption and called for the resignation of NATS's chief executive.
