Thousands of air passengers have been suffering long delays and cancellations after a “technical issue” hit UK air traffic control systems.
Holidaymakers are stuck all over the UK and abroad after National Air Traffic Services (Nats) reduced traffic flow.
Airlines and airports warned there were still “significant delays” despite the issue having later been fixed.
One passenger told BBC News he could be waiting until the early hours for his delayed flight to return to the UK.
Nats confirmed the fault just after midday on Monday before it announced at 15:15 BST that it had identified and remedied the issue that was affecting UK airspace.
Several airports across the UK, and airlines including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and TUI, warned passengers of delays and cancellations.
British Airways said the air traffic control issue had caused “significant and unavoidable delays and cancellations” and apologised for the huge inconvenience caused.
It has advised customers on short-haul services not to travel to the airport without checking their flight is still running.
The airline added customers due to travel on Monday and Tuesday may be able to move their flights free of charge to a later date.
Ryanair said it had been forced to delay or cancel a number of flights, and Jet2 said all its flights to and from the UK were expected to experience significant delays.
It said it had cancelled some outbound flights on Monday and was reviewing Tuesday’s schedule – but said passengers for Tuesday’s flights should travel to the airport as usual unless they were advised otherwise.
Alastair Rosenschein, a former British Airways pilot and now an aviation consultant, called the disruption “huge” – and said the equivalent for cars would be if every road was closed in the country.
Chris Wroe told BBC News he and his family were waiting at an airport in the Netherlands for his delayed British Airways flight back to London.
“On the app, it’s saying departure at 2 am tomorrow,” the father, who is travelling with a one-year-old, said. “Staff at check-in just said it’s an indefinite delay.”
Cricket journalist Rory Dollard said he and his family faced being stuck in France for up to six days after his Ryanair flight was cancelled.
The father, from Skipton, North Yorkshire, is stuck at an airport in Bergerac with his wife and children, aged 10 and eight.
He said: “I’ve never been in a situation like this before and because of the language barrier, it’s hard to work out exactly who’s responsible for which part of the cost.
“If you need to find a hotel for the next five/six nights, who’s paying for this? Is it Ryanair? Is it your insurer? Is it somebody else?”
Cirium, an aviation data firm, said 3,049 flights would have been due to depart from UK airports on Monday, and a further 3,054 flights scheduled to arrive.
As of 14:30 BST, its data showed that 232 departing fights had been cancelled, which it said was equivalent to 8% of all departures, and 271, or 9%, of incoming flights.
Travel journalist Simon Calder told BBC News that Bank Holiday Monday is one of the busiest days of the year, as many people return from long weekend trips abroad – pointing out that the UK’s Heathrow Airport is the busiest two-runway airport in the world. At the same time, Gatwick is the world’s busiest single-runway airport.
Ryanair said it had been “forced to delay/cancel a number of flights”, while Wizz Air also warned of “heavy delays and possible cancellations”.
Manchester, Heathrow and Stansted Airports in updated statements said the earlier air traffic control issue was still causing disruption.
They have advised passengers to check the status of their flight before coming to the airport.
Earlier spokespeople for London Luton and Gatwick airports all said they were experiencing issues, and urged customers to contact their airlines.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper advised “passengers should contact their airline for up-to-date flight information” and said he would encourage passengers to read the UK Civil Aviation Authority guidance to be aware of their rights when flights are delayed or cancelled.
The Liberal Democrats had called on the prime minister to convene the emergency response committee Cobra, while Labour said the incident was “extremely concerning”.
Nats said the issue was a “flight planning issue” that had affected the system’s ability to automatically process flight plans, “meaning that flight plans had to be processed manually which cannot be done at the same volume, hence the requirement for traffic flow restrictions”.
Graham Lake, an aviation strategy consultant, told BBC Radio 4 PM: “What we have is a system failure that’s caused a revert to a manual system [that] has a much lower capacity for processing aircraft, and so the only way you can keep it safe is to stop aircraft taking off.
“You can’t stop the ones that are already airborne, but you stop the ones still on the ground until you’ve identified and remedied the fault.”
He explained the Nat’s technical fault was “extremely rare”, with the last one being in 2014 attracting an independent inquiry into the cause of the failure.
Source- BBC
