HOLIDAYMAKERS across the country are facing travel chaos after an air traffic control failure plunged UK airport departures into gridlock.
Thousands of passengers have been left stranded in terminal queues and stuck on grounded planes on runways from London to Lisbon.
Here is the lowdown on why flights are halted, which airports are hit, and what you need to know right now.
What has happened?
The UK’s national air traffic control provider, National Air Traffic Services (NATS), has suffered a major “technical issue” affecting systems across the country.
Engineers are currently on-site working to fix the breakdown, which hit during peak travel hours on Tuesday (September 8) afternoon.
The glitch has hit the system that processes flight plans for departing aircraft, creating a backlog across the British aviation network.
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NATS is the service provider company that operates the complex automated computer network that calculates flight paths, safe separation distances, and runway timing slots, and on which air traffic controllers rely.
When it suffers a technical failure, that automatic system stops processing incoming flight plans smoothly.
To keep the skies safe, controllers must immediately fall back on manual processing.
Entering flight data by hand takes significantly longer, reducing the number of planes that can safely take off every hour.
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Because UK airspace is among the busiest in the world, even a brief pause creates an immediate bottleneck that ripples across all terminals.
Which airports are affected?
Virtually every airport in the country has been affected by the outage.
Among some of the UK’s major airports, outgoing flights at London Heathrow and Gatwick have been hit with severe delays or temporarily halted.
Outbound services from Manchester, London Stansted, and East Midlands are also experiencing widespread knock-on disruption.
And Edinburgh Airport, London Luton, and Jersey Airport have all confirmed they are caught up in the chaos.
Is my flight affected?
If you are due to fly out of any UK airport today, do not head to the terminal without checking your flight status first.
Airport bosses are advising all passengers to monitor their airline’s app or website for live updates before travelling.
If your flight is delayed for hours or cancelled, your airline has a legal duty of care to provide you with food and drink vouchers, access to communication, and accommodation if you are stranded overnight.
NATS and major airports are issuing regular statements via their official websites and social channels.
Engineers remain on site trying to resolve the technical issue, but travellers are being warned to expect severe knock-on delays long after the software system is restored.
Are flights to the UK affected?
Arriving flights are currently not impacted.
Planes already heading towards the UK are landing as normal, but anything sitting on the tarmac waiting to take off is frozen in place.
But travellers sitting in airports and on planes have taken to social media and spoken out about the nightmare unfolding.
One passenger, stranded on the tarmac in Alicante bound for Manchester, warned the disruption was spreading well beyond London.
Again, monitor your airline’s app or website for live updates before travelling.
When might the issues be resolved?
There is currently no set time for a complete fix, but NATS engineers remain on-site working to restore normal automated processing as quickly as possible.
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Air traffic reports suggest controllers are aiming to stabilise systems later this evening, though a full recovery will take time.
But even once the glitch is fixed, aviation experts warn the knock-on disruption will linger long after the software comes back online.