More than 200 UK flights have been cancelled because of a “technical issue” at an air traffic control centre.
National Air Traffic Services (NATS) announced on Monday morning that a “technical issue” at its centre in Prestwick, Scotland, was causing disruption.
A number of flights between London and cities in Scotland and northern England have been cancelled.
A spokesman said: “Our engineers are continuing to investigate the issue at our Prestwick centre in Scotland.
“Airports south of Manchester are broadly unaffected, however flights heading north and flights departing Scottish airports are currently subject to some delay.
“Passengers should check with their airlines. This is unrelated to the issue two weeks ago. We apologise for the disruption.”
In an update shortly before 11am, NATS said the issue had been fixed.
It said: “We are working with airports and airlines to safely lift air traffic regulations as quickly as we can to minimise any further disruption.
“Passengers should still check the status of their flight with their airline.
According to aviation analytics company Cirium, easyJet has been the most impacted airline with 47 (7%) of its 670 scheduled departures today from the UK cancelled.
17.4% of departures from George Best Belfast City Airport on Monday have been cancelled or considered “no fly”, along with 12.5% from Belfast International Airport and 10.3% from Glasgow Airport.
It comes after a software defect earlier in September caused a major failure at NATS, resulting in thousands of flights being delayed or cancelled.
Heathrow was the worst-affected airport, with disruption taking days to resolve because of the number of planes and crew left out of place.
The latest failure has caused a number of flights between London and Scotland and the north of England to be cancelled or delayed.
Ryanair has said more than 25,000 of its passengers are expected to be disrupted, with chief operations officer Neal McMahon calling for NATS boss Martin Rolfe to resign.
He said: “Passengers are once again suffering lengthy delays because NATS has failed to deliver either a reliable system or an effective back-up.
“Martin Rolfe has presided over repeated system failures, repeated passenger disruption and repeated failures to deliver an effective back-up system.
“Enough is enough. Martin Rolfe should resign today.”
easyJet said the latest flight disruption “calls into question the resilience of NATS’ systems” after two air traffic control problems within one month.
The airline said in a statement: “A NATS air traffic control system failure in its Prestwick centre is causing delays to flights with some unable to operate.
“This, once again, calls into question the resilience of NATS’ systems and demonstrates the need for firm actions to prevent these repeated failures.
Luton Airport said domestic flights had been disrupted by the air traffic control issue.
A statement said: “The air traffic control system operated by NATS at its Prestwick centre is experiencing a technical issue which is impacting flights across the UK including a number of domestic flights to/from London Luton Airport.
“Passengers are advised to check with their airline before travelling to the airport. We will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.”
Bride-to-be Barbara Ann Stoddart was due to fly to Las Vegas with groom Andrew Lithgow, their three children, best man and a friend, but had their Glasgow to Heathrow flight cancelled, meaning they will miss their connection to Las Vegas.
They are hoping they still make it in time for the wedding, having been booked onto a flight late afternoon on Tuesday.
Ms Stoddart said: “I’m completely stressed out. This has been planned for about a year-and-a-half, going away to get married, and the flight has now been cancelled, so we’re going to miss a full day as we won’t be there till tomorrow night.
“I have still to go to the county court in Vegas to go and get the marriage licence, and I’ve got to be there three days in advance. The wedding is on Saturday but if there’s any hiccups I might not be getting married on Saturday now.”
2.15pm – London Heathrow to Newcastle – British Airways – Cancelled
2.55pm – Glasgow to London Heathrow – British Airways – Cancelled
3.20pm – London Heathrow to New York City – United Airlines – Cancelled
3.20pm – London Heathrow to Glasgow – British Airways – Cancelled
4.05pm – Amsterdam to London Heathrow – British Airways – Cancelled
4.05pm – London Heathrow to Aberdeen – British Airways – Cancelled
4.45pm – Dublin to London Heathrow – British Airways – Cancelled
5.35pm – Newcastle to London Heathrow – British Airways – Cancelled
8.00pm – Aberdeen to London Heathrow – British Airways – Cancelled
8.10pm – London Heathrow to Boston – British Airways – Cancelled
9.35pm – New York City to London Heathrow – United Airlines – Cancelled
11.20am – Edinburgh to London Stansted – easyJet – Cancelled
