Infrastructure & Transport
UK flights glitch affected 330,000, Airlines UK says
More than 330,000 passengers were affected by two days of disruption from a UK air traffic control technical glitch, industry body Airlines UK said, as hundreds more flights were cancelled on Wednesday.
Aviation analytics firm Cirium said 399 flights were cancelled across the country on Wednesday, most of them to and from London Heathrow, after 1,746 cancellations on Tuesday.
National Air Traffic Services chief executive Martin Rolfe told BBC radio that NATS had ruled out cyber activity as a cause. He said the organisation did not believe the incident was a cyberattack and would carry out a thorough investigation.
British Airways said it had cancelled nearly 550 flights because of the incident, including 200 on Wednesday, affecting 85,000 customers. Ryanair said more than 65,000 of its passengers had been disrupted and that 50 of its flights had been cancelled, most of them on Tuesday.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she had ordered an independent review to establish the cause and make sure air traffic control systems could get passengers where they needed to go. She said the review would report within six months and told MPs she did not believe the issue was unavoidable.
Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh airports were also affected, mainly on Tuesday, while Dublin airport said it had cancelled dozens of flights. The disruption followed a technical glitch in July last year that caused scores of flights to and from the UK to be cancelled, and a major UK air systems failure in 2023 that affected more than 700,000 passengers.
Update
Cirium said 399 flights were cancelled on Wednesday, after 1,746 cancellations on Tuesday.
Airlines UK said more than 330,000 passengers were affected over two days, including 155,000 with cancelled flights and about 180,000 delayed.
British Airways said it cancelled nearly 550 flights, including 200 on Wednesday, affecting 85,000 customers.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she had ordered an independent review to establish the cause and report within six months.
Alexander told MPs she did not believe the issue was unavoidable.
Source note: AFP news report published on 9 September 2026 at 19:59:40 UTC.
Update
Aviation analytics firm Cirium said 291 flights were cancelled on Wednesday after 1,746 were cancelled on Tuesday.
British Airways said it cancelled more than 190 flights during the incident.
NATS chief Martin Rolfe said cyber activity had been ruled out as a cause and promised a thorough investigation.
Source note: AFP news report published on 9 September 2026 at 13:10:14 UTC.
Update
National Air Traffic Services chief executive Martin Rolfe said NATS had ruled out a cyberattack as the cause of the outage.
Rolfe said NATS would carry out a thorough investigation into what caused the incident.
Source note: AFP news report published on 9 September 2026 at 10:12:02 UTC.
Update
NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe told Sky News he accepted full responsibility.
UK news outlets reported that Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander would meet Rolfe on Wednesday.
Rolfe declined to say whether he was considering quitting.
Source note: AFP news report published on 9 September 2026 at 03:10:25 UTC.
Update
Flightradar24 said 177 flights scheduled for Wednesday had already been cancelled.
The item says Tuesday cancellations to and from UK airports reached 1,300.
NATS said late Tuesday that recovery from the disruption was complex and would take time.
Heathrow said departures had resumed after arrivals were suspended Tuesday, but warned disruption would continue.
Arsenal cancelled a pre-match news conference after the team's flight to Naples was delayed.
Source note: AFP news report published on 9 September 2026 at 02:28:11 UTC.
Update
Flightradar24 said 177 flights scheduled to and from UK airports had been cancelled so far on Wednesday.
Flightradar24 said nearly all of the Wednesday cancellations were at London Heathrow.
Source note: AFP news report published on 9 September 2026 at 02:12:35 UTC.
Update
FlightRadar24 said 1,055 flights to and from British airports had been cancelled by 8:00 pm.
NATS said the system issue had been resolved and operations were normal, but that it was still clearing a flight backlog.
British Airways said it cancelled or diverted more than 100 flights, affecting tens of thousands of customers.
Ryanair said more than 65,000 of its passengers had been disrupted and it had cancelled more than 50 flights.
Arsenal cancelled a pre-match press conference after the team's flight to Italy was delayed.
British Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she was seeking assurances that lessons would be learned.
Source note: AFP news report published on 8 September 2026 at 19:27:14 UTC.
Uncertainty notes
The exact cause of the technical glitch has not been established.
Passenger impact and cancellation figures come from different named organisations and cover different categories and time periods.
Source
AFP news report published on .