UK flights resume after major air traffic control disruption
British Airways and Ryanair among airlines hit by airspace outage
DUBAI: Flights across the United Kingdom were thrown into disarray on Wednesday following a technical issue at the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) control centre.
The outage forced a nationwide suspension of departures from major airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, and London City. Though the fault has now been resolved, travellers are being warned that delays and cancellations will continue as the backlog is cleared.
NATS confirmed on X that “our systems are fully operational and air traffic capacity is returning to normal.” It also said departures had resumed and efforts were underway to restore regular scheduling. “We apologise to everyone affected by this issue,” the statement added.
ℹ️Technical issue at Swanwick
— NATS (@NATS) July 30, 2025
Our engineers have now restored the system that was affected this afternoon. We are in the process of resuming normal operations in the London area.
(1/2) https://t.co/CI9ZV9Voir pic.twitter.com/g5XgVLgyQ6
Major hubs affected
Heathrow, Britain’s busiest airport, was among the worst affected. A spokesperson said operations were restarting but passengers should “check with their airline before travelling.” Gatwick, Edinburgh, Stansted, and Luton airports all echoed the same advice, while London City Airport issued a warning about possible cancellations. At Edinburgh Airport, flights resumed just before 17:00 BST, though ten departures had been suspended earlier in the day.
Elsewhere, Cardiff reported a “small number” of delayed flights, and Liverpool noted that only westbound services were unaffected. Channel Islands airports, including Guernsey and Jersey, were also hit. Newcastle temporarily suspended all departures due to the issue impacting London’s airspace.
Airline reactions
British Airways reported that the vast majority of its flights had been affected, though it expected normal traffic to resume at Heathrow by 19:15 BST. Ryanair took a harder line, with its operations chief Neal McMahon demanding the resignation of NATS CEO Martin Rolfe.
*cough* Martin Rolfe @NATS *cough* https://t.co/DjzQ1Qwdbs
— Ryanair (@Ryanair) July 30, 2025
McMahon called the situation “outrageous” and said the failure showed that “no lessons have been learnt” since a similar incident last August.
That 2023 outage disrupted more than 500 flights, affecting around 700,000 passengers and costing over £100 million ($133 million) in compensation. The UK Civil Aviation Authority later recommended that NATS review its contingency protocols and improve communication with airlines and airports during incidents.
Continued caution
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander confirmed that the system had been restored but warned travellers to expect “continued disruption.” She urged passengers to check directly with their airline for the latest updates. EasyJet, meanwhile, advised customers to monitor its Flight Tracker and apologised for the inconvenience, stressing that the situation was beyond its control.
As airports and airlines scramble to normalise operations, passengers are being told to prepare for ongoing delays across the network.