UK airports ‘horrible’ warning as 177 flights cancelled on Wednesday after main outage
A NATS air traffic control system issue caused travel chaos at UK airports on Tuesday, with 1,300 flights cancelled and tens of thousands of passengers caught up in the disruption
The knock-on impact is expected to be ‘horrible’(Image: Getty)
A further 177 flights have been axed on Wednesday following a system glitch that sparked travel mayhem at UK airports yesterday.
Flight tracking website Flightradar24 reported that 1,300 flights had been scrapped to and from UK airports on Tuesday, September 8, with another 177 already binned on Wednesday.
The system breakdown struck Nats, which delivers air traffic control services to 15 UK airports.
The majority of flights already axed on Wednesday are departing from London Heathrow.
Tens of thousands of passengers were swept up in the chaos, which shows no signs of ending as .
177 flights are already cancelled on Wednesday(Image: Getty)
Ripple effects are anticipated across airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted as additional delays loom.
Travel journalist Simon Calder warned the knock-on consequences on Wednesday were “going to be horrible”. Calder added: “There are going to be dozens of cancellations in the morning of flights coming into Heathrow because, basically, the flights didn’t go out tonight.”
Ryanair revealed more than 65,000 of its passengers had been disrupted and it had axed more than 50 scheduled flights.
British Airways (BA) said it was compelled to cancel or divert more than 100 flights on Tuesday which had affected “tens of thousands of customers”.
Airlines have savagely slammed Nats’ chief executive officer Martin Rolfe after some passengers were left stranded on aircraft on tarmacs for hours, with some reporting they had no access to food or drink or toilet facilities. Speaking to Sky News, he said: “I am the CEO of a piece of critical infrastructure, so it is my job to take responsibility for that.
“What I absolutely take responsibility for is keeping people safe and delivering the best service we possibly can on a day like today.
“You will understand my focus is entirely about how we actually resolve this issue, get things back to normal, help our airlines, our airport customers and the travelling public.”
Luton Airport confirmed early on Wednesday that the airport was “open and operational”, but added: “Some flights may still be subject to disruption and passengers are advised to check their flight status directly before travelling to the airport.”
