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Airlines flying into the UK have warned of cancellations and delays following a “technical issue” that has disrupted the country’s air traffic control services during the busy summer bank holiday weekend.
Britain’s National Air Traffic Services (Nats) said on Monday it had been forced to apply “traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety” and that engineers were working to find and fix the fault.
It added that UK airspace is still open, contrary to early reports, but provided no further information about what had caused the problem.
Eurocontrol, the organisation that oversees air traffic management for Europe, warned the UK had been hit by a “flight data processing system failure”, which meant UK flights were being “regulated at low rates with very high individual delays”.
The disruption comes on one of the busier days of the year, as holidaymakers return to the UK on the final day of the bank holiday weekend.
Ryanair warned the problems were affecting “all airlines operating to and from the UK today” and said it would be forced to delay or cancel “a number of flights” as a result.
British Airways said in a statement: “We are working closely with Nats to understand the impact of a technical issue that is affecting UK airspace, and will keep our customers up to date with the latest information.”
Scottish airline Loganair said on social media there had been a “network-wide outage of air traffic control systems”, which meant “delays and disruption [were] expected throughout the day for all airlines”.
London Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, said: “As a result of national airspace issues there is disruption to flights across the UK. We are working closely with Nats and other airport partners to minimise the impact this has on passengers.”
London’s Gatwick warned flights had been delayed and that cancellations should be expected.
Passengers stuck on airlines grounded in airports around Europe took to social media to complain about delays. BBC sports broadcaster Gabby Logan said in a post: “On a plane on the runway at Budapest airport. and have just been told UK airspace is shut. We could be here for 12 hours. So we sit on the plane and wait.”