London's Heathrow hit by more flight cancellations after ATC failure
LONDON, 29 days ago
At least 16 flights to and from London's Heathrow Airport were cancelled on Thursday, a day after technical problems with Britain's air traffic control system caused widespread disruption across the country's airports, reported Reuters.
National Air Traffic Services (NATS), which provides air traffic control services for planes flying in UK airspace and the eastern part of the North Atlantic, said on Wednesday its systems were fully operational with capacity returning to normal after it switched to a back-up system.
The second outage in as many years at NATS also affected Gatwick Airport near London, Edinburgh Airport in Scotland and other locations, resulting in 122 cancellations as of 1830 GMT on Wednesday, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Heathrow's website showed that at least 16 flights, including departures to Brussels and Toronto and arrivals from New York and Berlin, had been cancelled on Thursday.
In a subsequent update to Reuters, a NATS spokesperson explained that it was a radar-related issue "which was resolved by quickly switching to the backup system during which time we reduced traffic to ensure safety."
"Flights at Heathrow have resumed following a technical issue at the NATS Swanwick air traffic control centre. We are advising passengers to check with their airline before travelling," a spokesperson for the airport remarked.
"Our systems are fully operational and air traffic capacity is returning to normal," stated NATS, the country's air traffic control provider, in a post on X.
"Departures at all airports have resumed and we are working with affected airlines and airports to clear the backlog safely. We apologise to everyone affected by this issue."
Operations at Gatwick Airport and Edinburgh Airport were also reported to be resuming.
