Photo: Yau Ming Low / Shutterstock.com Air traffic control systems across the UK are once again experiencing widespread delays following a major technical fault in the network operated by NATS.
The incident, which triggered official passenger warnings from major transit hubs including Manchester and Edinburgh airports, has caused cascading scheduling disruptions on Monday, September 21. Authorities have advised all travelers scheduled to depart today to monitor airline update channels closely before heading to terminal facilities.
In the latest update, NATS has announced that the technical issue affecting a key UK air traffic control site has been fixed, but travelers face lingering knock-on delays throughout the day.
NATS confirmed that its facility in Scotland, which caused widespread disruptions earlier this morning, is back online, with engineers sucessfully fixing the network connectivity issue that paralyzed regional airspace.
In the official statement released just after 11:00 AM local time, NATS confirmed that the glitch was isolated to its Scottish systems network and is entirely unrelated to previous operational failures. While air traffic control restrictions are actively being dismantled to clear the airspace backlog, extensive knock-on delays continue to hit flight schedules across the UK.
"We apologize to passengers for the disruption and thank them for their patience. Passengers should continue to check with their airline for the latest information on their flight."
Affected airports updated their guidance accordingly, noting that while operations are gradually returning to normal, flight schedules remain unstable. Passengers are still strongly urged to verify their flight's status before proceeding to the airport.
As a reminder, earlier this month, a rare software glitch grounded thousands of flights across the UK as it suddenly disrupted the National Airspace System operated by NATS at the London Area Control Center.