Overview
- NATS reported a connectivity fault at its Prestwick control centre on Monday, September 21, which caused about 227 cancellations and wider delays across Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.
- The Prestwick problem came two weeks after a separate September 8 flight‑processing software defect that cancelled nearly 2,100 flights and was traced to a tiny corruption in a processing module.
- NATS said the two incidents were unrelated and that the Prestwick issue has been resolved, but airlines including Ryanair and easyJet have renewed calls for faster fixes and leadership accountability.
- The Civil Aviation Authority is conducting an independent resilience review commissioned by the transport secretary and has signalled the disruptions are likely to count as "extraordinary circumstances," which would generally limit statutory passenger compensation while leaving airlines obliged to provide care and rerouting.
- Industry sources warn that decades‑old components and limited dedicated backups make the system fragile, leaving passengers, crews and travel firms to bear knock‑on costs and increasing the chance regulators will require mandated investment, new redundancy standards, or governance changes.