Flights across the UK are facing widespread disruption after air traffic control provider NATS suffered a technical problem affecting its flight-processing system on Tuesday afternoon.
The issue has caused restrictions and lengthy delays at several major airports, including London/Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester, while Edinburgh has also warned that its operations could be affected.
The disruption at Heathrow has intensified during the afternoon, with a source telling Airliner World that no further arrivals are expected before 1800hrs at the earliest.
The situation remains fluid and the timing could be subject to further change.
Several Heathrow-bound aircraft have already diverted as a result of the disruption.
Singapore Airlines flight SQ308, operated by Airbus A380-841, 9V-SKP (c/n 076), had been due to land at Heathrow at 1545hrs but instead diverted to Frankfurt.
British Airways flight BA62 from Nairobi has also diverted to London/Stansted.
Congestion has additionally developed on the ground at Heathrow, where three British Airways widebodies which arrived from Doha, Delhi and Mumbai between 1400 and 1500hrs remained parked on a southern taxiway rather than at their normal terminal gates
NATS confirmed the problem shortly after 2pm, saying: “We are investigating a technical issue which is causing some disruption to flight departures.
“Our engineers are on site and we will provide an update as soon as we can.
“We apologise for the delay this will cause to journeys, passengers should check with their airline on the status of their flight.”
In a later statement, the air navigation service provider confirmed the technical issue related to its “flight processing system”.
Heathrow said the problem was affecting departing flights but that arriving services were not, at the time of its statement, impacted.
“The air traffic control service NATS is experiencing a technical issue which is impacting departing flights at UK airports,” the airport said.
“We are supporting our local NATS team in their efforts to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”
NATS has not yet disclosed the precise nature or cause of the technical problem.
The latest incident comes a little over a year after a technical fault at NATS’ Swanwick control centre caused widespread disruption to UK flights on July 30, 2025. That incident involved a radar-related problem and resulted in restrictions being imposed on the number of aircraft able to operate in parts of UK airspace.
Even once the latest problem is resolved, knock-on delays are likely as airlines and airports work to recover aircraft and crews displaced by the disruption.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
