Wed, 30 Jul 2025

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 Flight disruption after major UK air traffic outage

The technical issue only lasted 20 minutes but caused a huge backlog of flights and delays.

* Over 150 flights were cancelled due to an air traffic control outage
* Thousands of planes were grounded at airports including Heathrow, Stansted, Manchester and Edinburgh
* The technical problem lasted 20 minutes but caused a huge backlog of flights and delays
* NATS said the issue was "radar-related" and quickly resolved by switching to a back-up system
* Government is investigating the incident with NATS
* Previous air traffic control outage in August 2023 affected over 700,000 customers
* Flights resumed after the system was restored, but many planes were grounded or diverted during the outage
* British Airways, EasyJet and Heathrow airport issued apologies for the disruption
* Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey called on the government to investigate the incident
* Ryanair chief operating officer Neal McMahon said it was "outrageous" that the air traffic control issue disrupted thousands of passengers' plans
* NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe should resign, according to Ryanair's McMahon.
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