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UK air traffic control outage disrupts flights

Glitches in UK air traffic control lead to cancellations at major airports including Heathrow and Gatwick.

6 stories589 sourcesUpdated Sep 9, 2026

In this storyline:London Heathrow Airport United Kingdom air traffic control NATS Holdings Air India London London Gatwick Airport London Stansted Airport

UK air traffic control outage disrupts flights — Photo: Konstantin Von Wedelstaedt / Wikimedia Commons (GFDL 1.2)

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Sep 9, 5 AMdots mark key developments · hover for any hourSep 12, 4 AM

Key developments

Sep 8, 2026
UK air traffic control glitch prompts hundreds of flight cancellations.
5 sources on this →
Sep 8, 2026
Heathrow and Gatwick among airports hit by air traffic control problems.
5 sources on this →
Sep 8, 2026
Travel chaos at UK airports as over 600 flights canceled due to air traffic control issue.
6 sources on this →
Sep 9, 2026
Air Traffic Control Failure Disrupts London Airport Flights.

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Travel

NATS Failure Causes 1,300 UK Flight Cancellations

A technical failure at the UK air traffic control provider NATS disrupted departures across major airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted and Bristol, with travellers advised to check flight times as flights were grounded, delayed or slowed. Engineers were on site at Swanwick and across the network to restore operations, highlighting a nationwide disruption to the flight processing system and ongoing contingency efforts.

562 sources