More than 150 flights cancelled as airlines demand answers over glitch: Live updates

The Independent’s Whitehall editor Kate Devlin writes:

The disruption at British airports has been caused by systems being down for just 20 minutes, The Independent understands.

Passengers are experiencing major delays in the wake of the traffic control issues, which has seen planes grounded and planes diverted to other areas.

Travellers have been warned that continued disruption is expected and they should check with individual airports for advice.

The Independent’s travel correspondent Simon Calder writes:

Passengers on later flights on Wednesday face long delays as a result of the air-traffic control shutdown. For example, the afternoon flight from Lyon to Luton diverted to Paris CDG as a result of the UK airspace shutdown. It eventually arrived at 8.50pm, three hours behind schedule. The subsequent trip to Jersey was delayed three hours, with a correspondingly late return – instead of arriving at Luton from Jersey at 8.30pm, the expected time is close to midnight.

At Southend, easyJet’s flights from Faro was diverted to Bordeaux. An incoming plane from Gran Canaria ended up on the island of Jersey, and a round-trip to Amsterdam was cancelled.

London City airport was badly affected, with one British Airways flight from Glasgow returning to its starting place, and links to Rotterdam, Palma and Amsterdam cancelled.

We’ve heard from transport secretary Heidi Alexander, who said on X that she is aware of the technical issue which shut down air traffic control operations.

“I have been informed systems have now been restored but continued disruption is expected, and passengers should check with individual airports for advice,” Ms Alexander added.

Flight analysts Cirium have said 84 departures and 71 arrivals were cancelled across UK airports on Wednesday,

This brings the total 155, the BBC reported.

Most of these cancellations were at London Heathrow, with 29 departures and 17 arrivals.

But Cirium does not give a cause foe the cancellations in its data, so some may not have been related to the power outage.

A Briton who was on a flight from Oslo to London – which has turned around mid-air towards the Norwegian capital – is expecting “chaos” when the plane lands.

Tanya Goldhaber said she was two-thirds of the way to London when the pilot informed passengers that the flight would be turning back to London due to a radar issue – and lack of fuel.

“My child went into meltdown for a little while which wasn’t great but she’s sleeping now,” Ms Goldhaber told The Independent.

“It’s a plane full of Norwegian and British people so it’s actually very calm and stoic, but basically we have zero information from anyone about what’s going to happen when we’re on the ground – but I’d imagine it’s going to be chaos when we get to Oslo,” she added.

“They’re suggesting the plane will land and go back at 7pm but I’m not sure anyone believes that. So we may or may not be back in the UK this week, we’ll see – I would not recommend doing this with a four-month-old baby.”

The Independent’s travel correspondent Simon Calder writes:

London Gatwick is the world’s busiest single-runway airport, with take-offs and landing as close as 65 seconds apart. The closure of airspace due to a technical fault at Nats has stranded thousands of passengers who were hoping either to fly to or from the Sussex airport.

The biggest airline at Gatwick, easyJet, grounded 16 departures as a result of the air-traffic control failure: to Heraklion, Naples, Geneva, Larnaca, Murcia, Alicante, Gibraltar and Belfast International, as well as the inbound flights. An estimated 3,000 passengers are affected.

Many more have been hit by the cancellation of flights linking Gatwick with Paris Orly and Bilbao on Vueling, Copenhagen and Billund on Norwegian and Nice on British Airways.

Nearly two years ago, more than 700,000 passengers suffered disruption when flights were grounded at UK airports on August 28.

It happened after ATC provider National Air Traffic Services (Nats) suffered a technical glitch while processing a flight plan.

Travel correspondent Simon Calder takes a look at what happened that day:

A spokesperson from Nats has told The Independent that there is no evidence that the technical glitch earlier on Wednesday was related to cyber crime.

“This was a radar related issue which was resolved by quickly switching to the back up system during which time we reduced traffic to ensure safety,” the spokesperson said.

“There is no evidence that this was cyber related.”

A man travelling home with his family said he was told his flight had been cancelled while on the tarmac.

Baptiste, travelling back to France, who did not want to give his full name, said he did not know why his flight was cancelled.

He said: “We have no information. When we arrived, we were stopped on the tarmac and in the plane. We learned that our flight had been cancelled. We’re going to Geneva in Switzerland, so we’re trying to find a flight for tomorrow and a hotel.

“I don’t know why we’re in this situation, but we’re used to strikes in France, so we’re thinking that we’re not the only ones in Europe to be in a situation like this.

“This is our last flight. We left Polynesia, we went through Los Angeles and now we’re coming to London to get back down to Geneva.

“And we’re thinking it’s better to be on the way back than on the way out.”

Earlier, we brought you news that Zara Metcalf, a passenger at Manchester Airport, had been told her flight to Croatia was delayed by six hours.

Passengers have now been informed to board immediately, she tells The Independent.

“We were about to board the flight and were told all flights were grounded! We were then advised of a 6 hour delay,” Ms Metcalf said.

“There’s chaos and confusion across the airport as now we apparently need to board immediately!

“Very frustrating and the communication is terrible,” she added.