Overview
- A failure in NATS' flight‑processing system on Tuesday forced Heathrow and Gatwick to ground departures and led to more than 1,000 cancelled flights, according to FlightRadar24 and news agencies.
- NATS said the technical fault was resolved and core systems are operating normally, but airlines report dozens to hundreds of residual cancellations, with Heathrow the worst‑affected as schedules are rebalanced.
- British Airways said it diverted or cancelled over 100 flights and Ryanair cancelled more than 50, leaving tens of thousands of passengers delayed or disrupted and triggering knock‑on effects for events and travel plans.
- Transport Minister Heidi Alexander summoned NATS CEO Martin Rolfe, who accepted responsibility, while Ryanair's operations director publicly called for leadership change, increasing pressure on NATS' governance and contingency plans.
- The outage follows major NATS failures in 2023 and 2025 that disrupted thousands of flights, and it is likely to prompt government and regulator reviews of the service's resilience and emergency procedures.