NATS software failure disrupts over 2,000 flights between the UK and Canary Islands

Disruption overview

Flights between the United Kingdom and Spain's Canary Islands were heavily affected after a software failure at NATS on 15 September 2026 forced a nationwide slowdown in UK air traffic. By 5:00 pm UK time, at least 425 flights had been canceled, while wider industry data pointed to more than 2,000 disrupted services and continued knock-on problems into 16 September. Routes involving London Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Bristol, Glasgow, and Tenerife were among the worst hit, and Ryanair later said around 150,000 of its customers were affected. Because the outage stemmed from air traffic control rather than the airlines themselves, compensation is usually unlikely under EC 261, but airlines should still provide rerouting, care, and support.

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Disruption details

Flights between the United Kingdom and Spain's Canary Islands were heavily disrupted on 15 September 2026 after a software failure at NATS forced a nationwide reduction in traffic flows. If you were due to fly, that meant canceled departures, long delays, and uncertainty at airports across Britain and on routes serving Tenerife and the wider islands.

By 5:00 pm UK time, Flightradar24 had logged at least 425 cancellations across the United Kingdom. Airlines affected included easyJet, British Airways, KLM, Eurowings, and Ryanair. Canary Islands connections were among the hardest hit because planes and crews were left stranded away from their home bases, creating an equipment shortage on the islands.

Services linking the islands with London Gatwick Airport, London Luton Airport, London Heathrow Airport, Manchester Airport, Birmingham Airport, Edinburgh Airport, Newcastle International Airport, Bristol Airport, Glasgow Airport, and Tenerife South Airport were either canceled outright or left hours behind schedule. That left many travelers needing to rebook at short notice or wait for aircraft and crews to be moved back into place.

The wider scale of the disruption became clearer as the day went on:

• Cirium counted more than 2,000 disrupted flights, including over 1,750 cancellations.

• AirNav Radar recorded 1,012 delays on Tuesday alone.

• A further 250 flights were canceled on 16 September 2026 as the backlog continued.

Even after NATS said the technical issue had been fixed and operations were running normally on Wednesday, the recovery was slow. Heathrow Airport counted 246 early-morning cancellations, while AirNav Radar logged another 1,226 delays and 293 cancellations across the country. London Gatwick Airport told passengers not to travel to the terminal until their flight was confirmed, and Heathrow warned that aircraft and crews still needed to be repositioned.

NATS said the fault was inside its internal flight-processing system, ruled out a cyberattack, and opened a formal investigation. UK Transport Minister Heidi Alexander also called an emergency meeting with NATS chief Martin Rolfe as pressure grew to explain how the failure spread so quickly across the network.

Airlines tried to limit the fallout in different ways. easyJet offered free rebooking or refunds, along with meals and hotel accommodation where needed. British Airways canceled or diverted about 100 flights, and Ryanair said the knock-on disruption grew from 65,000 affected customers to around 150,000 customers as schedules unraveled.

For travelers heading to or from the Canary Islands, the disruption was especially persistent. Once aircraft and crews were out of position, problems carried over into the next day even after the underlying software fault had been resolved. That meant some passengers faced a second round of delays or cancellations on 16 September, particularly on busy UK routes.

The outage also renewed scrutiny of NATS after other reliability problems in recent years, including a control-center fault in July 2025 and a network-wide failure in August 2023. For passengers, though, the immediate issue was simpler: checking whether their flight was still operating and getting help quickly if it wasn't.

Because this disruption was caused by an air traffic control IT failure rather than the airlines themselves, compensation is usually unlikely under EC 261. Still, airlines should offer care and assistance if your journey is disrupted, including rerouting or a refund, meals and refreshments during long waits, accommodation if you're stranded overnight, and communication support where needed. Although compensation is unlikely here, that doesn't mean you're without support. If you'd like to understand what applies to your flight, AirHelp's free flight checker is a simple place to start.

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