Heathrow and Gatwick delays live: Hundreds more flights cancelled but minister backs air traffic control boss over ‘technical glitch’

Nats, the National Air Traffic Service, said its operations are “stable” following Tuesday’s incident that led to hundreds of flight cancellations.

In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, the air traffic control provider said: “Our operations are stable, and we continue to work closely with airlines and airports to support their recovery from the ongoing disruption to their operations.

“We would also like to reiterate our apology to all those affected – passengers, airlines and airports – by our system issue yesterday.

“While our immediate focus is on safely managing today’s flights, a full investigation will be conducted to establish what happened and identify any further action needed.”

The chief of Britain’s main air traffic control provider, Martin Rolfe, still has the confidence of the government, Downing Street has said.

Asked about the severe disruption at airports across the country, the prime minister’s official spokesman told reporters: “This morning that the Transport Secretary (Heidi Alexander) met the chief of National Air Traffic Service (Nats) to raise significant concerns at the scale of disruption on behalf of both passengers and industry.

“She’s asked him to carry out a full investigation into what happened to make sure that lessons are learned, so that this doesn’t happen again. She set a deadline for them to report back in a week’s time.“

Asked whether Ms Alexander and the prime minister still have confidence in the Nats chief, the spokesman said: “We have confidence in him and he’s been tasked with the investigation.”

A broken-down train between Purley and Gatwick airport means that some Gatwick Express lines are blocked.

“As a result, trains may be cancelled, delayed by up to 40 minutes or revised,” said the rail operator, with disruption expected until at least 1.30pm.

For delays of under two hours, you have no rights (unless a short delay in the UK triggers a missed connection and a much later arrival at your final ticketed destination).

For longer delays, the airline should provide refreshments as appropriate after a specified length of time. This applies regardless of the cause of the delay.

The time at which the duty of care kicks in depends on the distance you are flying:

• Short flights (up to 1,500km): refreshments after two hours
• Mid-haul journeys (1,500 to 3,500km): refreshments after three hours
• Longer trips: four hours

Martin Rolfe, the boss of the air traffic control provider Nats, has been summoned to brief transport secretary Heidi Alexander on what caused the “technical issue” at air traffic control.

It comes three years after a glitch in Nats flight processing system caused major failure. Nats has told The Independent that yesterday’s incident was not down to the same issue.

Paul Charles, former director at Virgin Atlantic and now CEO of The PC Agency, told The Independent that Mr Rolfe will likely go over a lack of investment in control systems.

He said: “It is unacceptable for a critical piece of UK national infrastructure to fall over so significantly three times within four years. And for that I think Martin Rolf will not last as CEO.”

Speaking to BBC News this morning, travel and tourism advisor Anita Mendiratta said: “Nats and Martin [Rolfe] are going to have to explain what has happened, because it’s not only ATC that was impacted; that issue contaminated the entire aviation infrastructure.

“This is a reflection of the UK, and this is where it’s quite sad because it really questions if we want to be a global travel and trade hub. How can we do that when it’s so easy for one glitch to shut down the system?

“The fear is that we’re seeing signs of weakness of the system at the same time that we’re wanting airport infrastructure to be growing, but it can’t grow if the aircraft are vulnerable to air traffic control challenges that will cause disruptions.”

The chief executive of air traffic control provider Nats, Martin Rolfe, said the disruption was caused by an issue with Nats’ flight data processing system, adding that it was different from the system that failed during the August Bank Holiday weekend in 2023.

The cause of the fault is currently under investigation.

Ryanair cancelled 260 flights on Tuesday, ⁠leading to an immediate loss of £2.5m to £3m ($3.38m – $4.06m), its ⁠CEO Michael O’Leary told Reuters ⁠on Wednesday, ​after a ⁠major air ‌traffic failure shut down departures across ‌Britain.

“We’re looking at ‌probably (losses of) five, six million ⁠or something”, O’Leary said, adding that they expected 30 more flights to be cancelled on Wednesday ‌as crews ​are in ‌the wrong places ⁠and working ⁠the wrong hours.

Rail passengers who have been affected by flight disruption can travel on a different date, use an alternative station where appropriate or apply for a refund, the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) has said.

Train tickets for travelling to or from affected airports on Tuesday or Wednesday can now be used on the date of a rebooked flight.

As of Wednesday morning, passengers flying from Heathrow and Gatwick are facing hundreds of flight delays.

According to Flightradar24, 179 flights are delayed from Heathrow by an average of 20 minutes, with 177 flights delayed by an average of 16 minutes at Gatwick.