Raphael Kanu
Flights at major UK airports were grounded for hours on Wednesday following a “radar failure” at the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) control centre in Swanwick, sparking travel chaos for thousands of passengers.
The technical fault forced NATS to limit the number of aircraft entering London’s busy airspace, affecting airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Birmingham, Manchester, and Edinburgh. More than 3,000 scheduled departures and nearly the same number of arrivals were impacted, potentially affecting over one million passengers.
Although NATS confirmed by late afternoon that the system had been restored, severe knock-on delays continued into the evening as airports worked through a significant backlog.
A NATS spokesperson apologised for the disruption, saying: “We limited the number of aircraft in the London control area to ensure safety, which is always our priority. Normal operations are now resuming.”
The grounding left passengers stranded on tarmacs and in crowded terminals. Several airlines, including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, were forced to cancel or divert flights, with one Virgin Atlantic service from Lagos diverted to Paris.
Calls for an urgent investigation quickly followed. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey described the disruption as “utterly unacceptable”, citing a similar NATS outage in 2023. Ryanair demanded the resignation of NATS CEO Martin Rolfe, accusing the agency of “continued mismanagement.”
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander confirmed that a full review would be launched, adding that passengers should expect residual delays while airlines adjusted their schedules.