Technical issue disrupts departures at major British airports

London, United Kingdom. Departing flights at several major British airports were disrupted on Tuesday after air traffic control provider NATS reported a technical issue.

Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted were among the airports affected by restrictions and delays, while Dublin Airport said its flights were also impacted.

Operational impact

NATS said it was investigating the issue and that engineers were on site.

“We are investigating a technical issue which is causing some disruption to flight departures. Our engineers are on site and we will provide an update as soon as we can,” the provider said in a post on X.

Heathrow, Britain’s largest airport hub, said it was working with NATS to resolve the problem as quickly as possible. Edinburgh Airport said the issue could affect its operations.

Flight tracking website Flightradar24 said arrivals and departures were being heavily regulated at airports in the London flight information region because of the issue.

Previous disruptions

The incident is the latest technical problem to affect Britain’s air traffic control systems.

In 2024, Britain’s aviation regulator said NATS needed to review its outage contingency plans after automatic flight-plan processing malfunctioned the previous year, causing widespread disruption at airports across the country.

Airline executives said that incident cost carriers more than £100 million, or $135.49 million, in refunds and compensation.

In July last year, a radar-related technical issue disrupted flights for more than four hours at major airports in London and elsewhere, including Heathrow.