Technical glitch at Prestwick air traffic centre triggers cancellation of over 200 flights

Nats identified a network fault at its Prestwick air traffic control centre on September 21 that overloaded data distribution systems, prompting the cancellation of 277 UK flights, including over 200 in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The problem, distinct from the September 8 Swanwick software defect, affected automatic messaging and system-to-system exchanges but did not compromise aircraft separation or safety. Easyjet suffered roughly 50 cancellations, while Loganair lost about 25, and Edinburgh Airport reported 18 cancellations.

Nats found no signs of malicious cyber activity and reduced aircraft movements to 60 % then 40 % before restoring full service by 2 pm. The firm will review its operational data networks to prevent similar faults and has published the investigation report due to its proximity to the earlier incident. The disruptions have drawn criticism of chief executive Martin Rolfe, with Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary calling him incompetent, and Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander questioning the avoidability of the earlier outage.