UK NATS outage disrupts more than 1,900 flights as delays continue

Disruption overview

A technical failure at NATS on 8 September 2026 triggered more than 1,900 canceled flights and widespread delays across the UK, with disruption still continuing on 9 September 2026 at airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted, Edinburgh, Luton, Glasgow, London City, Bristol, and Aberdeen. British Airways added more than 190 further cancellations on Wednesday after 1,750 flights were lost on Tuesday and another 153 were cut early in the morning. Because the problem came from the air-traffic control system rather than the airlines, compensation under EC 261 is unlikely in most cases, but carriers should still provide rerouting or refunds, meals and refreshments during long waits, accommodation if needed, and other care and assistance.

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Disruption details

A nationwide failure in the UK's National Air Traffic Services (NATS) network on 8 September 2026 triggered more than 1,900 flight cancellations and widespread delays, with knock-on disruption still affecting travelers on 9 September 2026.

For passengers, this has meant last-minute changes, longer waits, and a second day of uncertainty at airports across the country. NATS detected the technical problem at 1:46 pm on Tuesday and has since applied a fix, but getting aircraft, crews, and schedules back into place is taking longer because the recovery is complex.

Flights have resumed at Heathrow Airport and Gatwick Airport, but both airports are still warning of ongoing knock-on effects and advising passengers to travel only if their flight is confirmed.

By early Wednesday, the confirmed disruption included:

• Cirium counted 1,750 canceled flights during Tuesday's outage.

• Another 153 flights had already been canceled by early Wednesday morning.

• British Airways added more than 190 extra cancellations to its Wednesday schedule.

The breakdown affected major airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, London Stansted, Edinburgh, London Luton, Glasgow, London City, Bristol, and Aberdeen. With planes and crew left out of position, airlines have had to reshuffle services across their networks rather than simply restart where they stopped.

British Airways was among the hardest hit. After canceling more than 100 services on Tuesday afternoon alone, the airline said tens of thousands of customers had been inconvenienced and confirmed more than 190 further cancellations on Wednesday because so many aircraft and crew were out of place.

Cirium's 5:00 am Wednesday update also showed 219 cancellations for easyJet, 225 for British Airways, 105 for Ryanair, 37 for Jet2, and 28 for Loganair on Tuesday. Ryanair said more than 65,000 of its passengers faced cancellations or delays of up to 8 hours, while easyJet, Jet2, and Tui Airways each apologized for the continued disruption and said they were working to reduce the impact.

The outage has also brought fresh pressure on NATS. Ryanair and Wizz Air have called for chief executive Martin Rolfe to step down, while industry bodies say this is the third major NATS outage in three summers after similar failures in 2023 and 2025. Rolfe has apologized and is due to meet transport secretary Heidi Alexander.

Because this disruption was caused by a technical failure inside the air-traffic control system rather than something the airlines controlled, compensation under EC 261 is unlikely in most cases. That said, if your flight is canceled or heavily delayed, your airline should still help with rerouting or a refund, food and drinks during longer waits, accommodation if you need to stay overnight, and basic ways to communicate.

Flights are moving again, but airlines say schedule recovery and crew repositioning could continue to affect journeys through the end of the week. If you're traveling, check your flight status before leaving for the airport. And if you want to understand what support applies to your trip, AirHelp's free flight checker is a simple place to start.

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