Birmingham Airport has urged passengers to contact their airlines after a nationwide air traffic control system failure caused significant disruption, with more than 20 flights affected at BHX. The airport's online departure board showed an Easyjet flight to Rhodes was cancelled, while numerous other flights were delayed by several hours.
NATS technical issue resolved but backlog remains
The technical issue, which affected NATS, the provider of air traffic control services to 15 UK airports, was resolved at 6.40pm. However, a backlog of flights continued to take time to clear, causing ongoing delays into the evening.
NATS said in a statement that recovery had “taken longer than we had hoped” after a technical issue in its “flight processing system”. The company apologised unreservedly for the disruption, stating: “Our system issue is now resolved, we are operating normally and working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights. We are truly sorry for the ongoing flight disruption. We know this is hugely frustrating and apologise unreservedly. Passengers should continue to check with their airline.”
Airport statement and airline impacts
Birmingham Airport issued a statement confirming that departures restarted at 18:40. “Following the technical issue that occurred with NATS, we have been working closely with them and departures from Birmingham Airport restarted at 18:40. We are continuing to work with NATS (who is responsible for air traffic control), to clear backlog alongside our airlines and handling agents. We advise customers to check the status of their flight with their airline. Once again, we apologise for the disruption caused,” the airport said.
Across the country, more than 400 flights were cancelled, with tens of thousands of passengers facing disruption. Ryanair reported that more than 65,000 of its passengers were affected nationwide, leading to the cancellation of more than 50 scheduled flights. British Airways said it was forced to cancel or divert more than 100 flights, impacting “tens of thousands of customers”.
Government response and ongoing recovery
A British Airways spokesperson said that despite being informed by NATS that the issue had been resolved, the “severity” of the problem meant there would be a “significant knock-on impact for customers and colleagues.” The incident was described as “entirely out of our control and incredibly frustrating for our customers and colleagues.”
EasyJet confirmed that some of its flights were “unable to operate” following the issue, which was also causing delays across Europe. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said on X that she was “seeking assurances that lessons will be learned and systems that support aviation are up to the job”, and gave her “huge thanks” to those working to “get people moving”.
Passengers at Birmingham Airport and across the UK are advised to continue checking with their airlines for the latest flight status as the backlog is cleared.
