UK Airspace Disruption
Tuesday, August 29th, 2023
Flight Delays and Cancellations Affect Thousands of Passengers
A temporary restriction of UK airspace on Monday, 28/8/2023, caused severe flight delays and cancellations. This was due to a technical issue at the UK’s air traffic control service, NATS. The organisation handles over 2.5 million flights travelling over the UK and across the North Atlantic every year.
The problem was first announced at 12.40 pm UK local time when UK airlines informed their passengers of flight delays due to a “network-wide failure of UK air traffic control computer systems.”
It transpired that flight plans, which are usually processed automatically, had to be handled by individual air traffic controllers. In a statement, NATS clarified that UK airspace was not closed, however, “flight plans are being input manually which means we cannot process them at the same volume, hence we have applied traffic flow restrictions.”
In a further statement at 3.15 pm UK time, NATS announced “We have identified and remedied the technical issue affecting our flight planning system this morning. We are now working closely with airlines and airports to manage the flights affected as efficiently as possible.”
The air traffic restrictions had repercussions for all airlines operating flights to and from the UK. The bank holiday Monday was a busy day for air travel, so the effects were immense, with over 500 cancelled flights and long flight delays in the UK and many other airports across Europe.
Palma de Mallorca Airport was particularly affected, as it was still recovering from the aftermath of Sunday’s storm. Some passengers, who had been unable to fly on Sunday, returned to the airport on Monday to find that their flight was again severely delayed or even cancelled, this time due to the issue with the UK air traffic control system.
With many passengers still stranded and planes and airline crews not being in the right place, the impact of Monday’s problem could still be felt for several days.
