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Heathrow and other major UK airports hit by air traffic control issue, causing flight delays, cancellations
CNN • • world
Key Points:
- A major air traffic control outage caused widespread flight delays and cancellations across British airports on Tuesday, with around 1,300 flights canceled, primarily affecting London Heathrow, Gatwick, and Stansted airports.
- Heathrow, one of Europe’s busiest airports, continued to experience disruptions on Wednesday as airlines worked to reposition aircraft and crew, with travelers advised to check flight statuses before traveling.
- The outage, attributed to the UK’s air traffic control provider NATS, drew criticism from budget airlines and led to a meeting between UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander and NATS CEO Martin Rolfe, who apologized but defended the organization's systems.
- The disruption also impacted international carriers such as Air India and Qatar Airways, causing delays, cancellations, and rerouting of flights to and from the UK.
- This incident follows a pattern of recurring outages at UK airports in recent years, including a major NATS glitch in 2023 and significant power and IT failures in 2023 and 2024, highlighting ongoing challenges in the UK's aviation infrastructure.
