Technical glitch at UK air traffic control causes widespread flight cancellations

A fault in Nats' flight‑processing system disrupted air traffic control services across the United Kingdom on Tuesday, leading to the cancellation of hundreds of flights at major airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Edinburgh, Stansted, Manchester and Birmingham. Airlines such as EasyJet and Ryanair reported that the glitch prevented a number of their services from operating, leaving thousands of travellers stranded or delayed.

Engineers were dispatched to apply a fix and the system began to recover later in the evening, though officials warned that the disruption would continue to affect schedules. The incident has highlighted the vulnerability of the country's aviation infrastructure and prompted calls for review of system resilience.