LONDON, United Kingdom- Air travel disruption has continued across the United Kingdom, with 177 flights cancelled on Wednesday following a technical failure that forced airlines to cancel about 1,300 services a day earlier.
Nearly all Wednesday’s cancellations were at London Heathrow, Britain’s busiest airport, according to flight-tracking service Flightradar24.
The latest disruption brings the number of cancelled flights to and from UK airports across the two days to nearly 1,500.
Britain’s air traffic control provider, National Air Traffic Services, said the disruption began after a fault affected its flight-data processing system on Tuesday.
The technical problem restricted the number of aircraft that controllers could safely handle, disrupting departures and arrivals at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Manchester, Birmingham and airports in Scotland.
NATS said engineers identified and fixed the fault within about four hours.
It maintained that flight safety was never compromised.
However, recovery took longer than expected as airlines struggled to reposition aircraft and crews displaced by Tuesday’s cancellations and diversions.
Heathrow resumed departures on Tuesday evening but suspended arrivals for the remainder of the night to protect passengers and airport workers as the backlog grew.
The airport warned that delays and cancellations could continue and advised passengers to confirm their flight status with airlines before travelling to the terminals.
British Airways cancelled or diverted more than 100 flights, while Ryanair said more than 65,000 of its passengers were affected by cancellations and delays lasting up to eight hours.
EasyJet, Wizz Air and several international carriers also reported disruption. Air India said the fault had forced it to cancel, delay or divert UK services and warned that other flights could be affected because aircraft and crews were out of position.
Airlines criticised NATS over the latest failure, with Ryanair calling for chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign and demanding reforms to Britain’s air traffic control system.
Rolfe said he accepted full responsibility for the breakdown as the head of a critical national infrastructure provider.
Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority is expected to investigate the incident and seek a report from NATS on its cause and the measures required to prevent another failure.
Passengers have been advised to check directly with their airlines for updated departure information and details about rebooking, accommodation or refunds.
