Flights from British airports resumed early on Wednesday after a major air traffic control failure disrupted operations across the UK, though airports warned it would take time for schedules to return to normal.
The outage, which lasted for several hours on Tuesday, led to the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights and left hundreds of thousands of passengers facing delays and disruption.
NATS, the UK’s air traffic control provider, said the problem had been resolved and that it was working to clear the backlog safely.
The company said safety was not compromised during the incident, but the disruption placed fresh pressure on the organisation and its chief executive, Martin Rolfe.
Airlines and airports later warned that passengers should still expect knock-on delays as aircraft and crews were repositioned.
Aviation authorities also moved quickly to address the fallout, with ministers reportedly calling in the NATS boss to explain the failure.
The incident renewed concerns about the resilience of Britain’s aviation infrastructure, especially as major airports including Heathrow and Gatwick continued to recover from the disruption.
British airports resume flights after major NATS air traffic control failure
