Hundreds of UK flights grounded after air traffic control problem

Hundreds of flights have been grounded at airports across the UK due to an air traffic control technical problem.

At least 625 flights have been cancelled in total, with hundreds of those at London’s Heathrow, one of the busiest airports in the world.

Data on flight-tracking platform FlightAware shows Gatwick, London City, Luton, Edinburgh and Bristol airports were also impacted.

The UK air traffic control provider — National Air Traffic Services (NATS) — said at 7.30pm on September 8 (4.30am, September 9 AEST) the problem, caused by an issue with its “flight processing system”, had been fixed after hours of travel chaos.

“Recovery from today’s system issue has taken longer than we had hoped. Our system issue is now resolved, we are ⁠operating normally and working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights,” NATS said on X.

Airlines are reporting thousands of passengers have been impacted, with airport lounges filled with travellers waiting to hear when they can depart.

How long it will take to clear the backlog of flights remains unclear.

British Airways warned in a statement there will be “significant knock-on impact” for customers.

“We were forced to cancel or divert more than 100 flights on Tuesday afternoon, inconveniencing tens of thousands of customers.”

Europe’s busiest airline, Ryanair, earlier reported that more than 65,000 passengers had been delayed by up to eight hours.

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The UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander wrote on X the technical problem had been fixed but she was hoping “lessons will be learned”.

“Technicians have idenfitied the issue and are fixing it as we speak. I know this will be frustrating for passengers and I’m sorry. Please check with your airline for latest advice.”