What We Know About the Second UK Air Traffic Control Glitch

Passengers at airports across Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England watched departure boards fill with cancellations Monday for the second time in two weeks, after a technical fault at National Air Traffic Services' Prestwick center disrupted roughly 150 flights, according to the BBC.

Nats, which operates the UK's air traffic control network, said the underlying problem was resolved and the system was running at "full capacity" by Monday afternoon, though it warned of knock-on delays. The airline industry's response was swift and pointed, with carriers accusing Nats of failing to demonstrate that a fix for an earlier outage this month had made the network more reliable.

What caused Monday's disruption at Prestwick?

Nats attributed the outage to a "connectivity issue" at its Prestwick site, which handles air traffic across Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of northern England, the BBC reported. The company said the fault had "nothing to do" with a separate software defect at its Swanwick center earlier in September, a distinction it made explicit in an effort to separate the two incidents in the public record. A prior BBC report described that Swanwick failure as stemming from a "millisecond" software defect, though officials have not linked the two events technically. By Monday afternoon, Nats said engineers had resolved the connectivity problem and the system was operating at full capacity, while cautioning that residual delays would continue to ripple through schedules.

How many flights were cancelled?

Around 150 flights were cancelled Monday, the BBC reported, citing figures compiled in the aftermath of the outage. EasyJet was hit hardest, with 47 of its 670 scheduled departures cancelled. British Airways recorded 12 cancellations out of 513 scheduled departures. Nats said it was "focused on working with our customers to recover their residual delays and help get their operations back to normal," a spokesperson told the BBC, signaling that disruption was expected to extend beyond Monday even after the technical fault was fixed.

What are airlines saying about Nats?

Carriers did not hold back. EasyJet said the incident "once again calls into question the resilience" of the UK's air traffic control service, according to the BBC. Wizz Air went further, with the airline describing a "national confidence crisis" in Nats. Yvonne Moynihan, managing director of Wizz Air UK, told BBC Radio 4's World at One that she lacked confidence in the organization's current leadership. "We need to look at the leadership at the top," Moynihan said, when asked whether Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe should resign. Airlines UK, the industry's representative body, said passengers and carriers alike "deserve better" after "yet another Nats failure," the BBC reported. The criticism reflects a broader pattern: this is the second major technical failure to hit Nats within a month, following the software defect at Swanwick, and airlines argue that repetition undercuts assurances that the system has been stabilized.

Will passengers get compensated?

Most will not, according to the UK Civil Aviation Authority. The regulator said the technical issue is "likely to be considered the result of 'extraordinary circumstances' under passenger rights rules," meaning airlines are expected to look after stranded travelers but are not required to pay standard delay or cancellation compensation. The CAA's statement, reported by the BBC, leaves passengers responsible for costs beyond rebooking and welfare assistance that airlines are obligated to provide, even as the same regulator scrutinizes Nats' broader resilience.

What happens next for UK air traffic control?

The CAA has an independent review of Nats' resilience already under way, with results expected within six months, the BBC reported. Prime Minister Andy Burnham, asked by reporters why he would not remove the head of Nats, said the matter first falls to the transport secretary. "These are clearly serious issues and they need to be fully investigated," Burnham said, adding that further issues "cause even greater concern" about the reliability of the UK's air traffic control system. He said the transport secretary was treating the recurrence "extremely seriously" and needed to determine "why there has been a recurrence." No timeline beyond the six-month CAA review has been set, and Nats has not publicly responded to calls from Wizz Air and other carriers for a change in leadership. For now, the practical resolution rests on two tracks moving on separate clocks: Nats working to clear residual delays from Monday's outage, and regulators and ministers examining whether the network's underlying infrastructure can withstand a third disruption.