Thu, 31 Jul 2025

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 Passengers urged to check flights after disruption

Airlines are demanding answers after an air traffic control failure led to 150 flights being cancelled on Wednesday.

* Over 150 flights were cancelled on Wednesday and thousands more grounded due to an air traffic control issue
* NATS, the air traffic control provider, has apologized and said it took 20 minutes to resolve the issue by switching to a backup system
* Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander met with NATS CEO Martin Rolfe to discuss the incident and said there was no evidence of "malign activity"
* Passengers have been urged to check their flight status with their airlines before traveling
* Airports across the UK were affected, but some, including Heathrow, Stansted, and Gatwick, reported normal operations on Thursday
* Flights at Manchester Airport were still disrupted, with a small number of cancellations
* Ryanair said all flights were operating as usual on Thursday
* The disruption is expected to last for days, with thousands of passengers affected
* EasyJet customers who were stranded due to the cancellation of their flights are being offered alternative arrangements
* Travel expert Simon Calder warned that disruption from Wednesday's outage would continue in the coming days
* NATS said it had fully followed the 11 recommendations made by the Civil Aviation Authority following a major outage in August 2023.
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