Air travellers in the United Kingdom faced another day of disruption on Wednesday as more than 150 flights were cancelled following a technical failure that severely affected the country’s air traffic control system.
Flight-tracking platform FlightRadar24 reported that at least 177 flights scheduled for Wednesday had been cancelled, adding to about 1,300 cancellations recorded to and from UK airports on Tuesday.
Heathrow Airport in London, the UK’s busiest airport, accounted for the overwhelming majority of the latest cancellations, according to FlightRadar24.
The disruption followed what the National Air Traffic Services (NATS), which manages air traffic control across the UK, described as a “system issue.”
NATS said it was continuing efforts to restore normal operations but warned that the impact of the technical problem was likely to persist as the aviation network worked through the backlog.
“This has been a very complex recovery and has created difficulties for the whole aviation network, from which it will take time to recover,” NATS said in a statement on Tuesday.
The disruption has affected airlines, passengers and airports, with travellers facing cancellations and delays as operators attempt to reschedule flights and clear the backlog.
Meanwhile, UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is expected to meet NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe on Wednesday to discuss the incident and the continuing disruption.
Rolfe told Sky News that he accepted “full responsibility” for the problems but declined to say whether he was considering stepping down from his position.
Authorities and aviation operators are now focused on restoring normal flight operations while assessing the cause and wider implications of the technical failure.
