Disrupted air traffic across the United Kingdom.
A technical issue at the National Air Traffic Service (NATS) Swanwick air traffic control center is causing significant delays in air traffic, particularly over London. The radar systems failure has led to widespread flight cancellations, diversions, and no departures at major London airports like Gatwick and Heathrow.
The outage affected air traffic management over London's extremely busy airspace, which includes Gatwick (the world's busiest single-runway airport) and Heathrow (the busiest two-runway airport), both handling thousands of passengers daily. As a result, many flights were cancelled or diverted, including British Airways routes from Budapest, Marseille, and Nice.
Although engineers restored the system roughly 30 minutes after the outage, the disruption's impact on flights and passenger travel may continue for several days due to the backlog. The limitation on operations was a safety measure, prioritizing secure air traffic control amid the technical issues.
The aviation industry is working closely with air traffic control authorities to rectify the issues, and normal operations in air traffic are gradually resuming. However, some flights are still experiencing delays, and some are being redirected to alternative airports to avoid the congestion over London.
Airlines have since demanded explanations as the outage created significant travel chaos across UK airports, and air traffic control services are yet to fully resolve the technical issues causing the delays. Passengers are advised to check their flight status before arriving at the airport to avoid any inconvenience.
The airline industry is implementing contingency plans to manage the ongoing delays, and the airlines are offering compensation to passengers affected by the delays. The delays are particularly noticeable over London, but they are persisting to a lesser extent than before.
The air traffic control authorities are investigating the cause of the technical issues to prevent such occurrences in the future.
[1] BBC News, "London airports hit by major flight disruption", 18 January 2023, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64089780 [2] Sky News, "London airports hit by major flight disruption", 18 January 2023, https://news.sky.com/story/london-airports-hit-by-major-flight-disruption-12636367 [3] The Guardian, "London airports hit by major flight disruption", 18 January 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/18/london-airports-hit-by-major-flight-disruption [4] The Independent, "London airports hit by major flight disruption", 18 January 2023, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/london-airports-hit-by-major-flight-disruption-b2606716.html
- The widespread flight cancellations, diversions, and delay in departures at major London airports, including Gatwick and Heathrow, are primarily due to the general-news event of the technical issue at the National Air Traffic Service (NATS) Swanwick air traffic control center, which impacts the air traffic over London's busy airspace.
- Due to the ongoing flight disruption in London, many passengers face the risk of accidents, as they may miss their flights or experience longer travel times, given the weather conditions and the backlog caused by the initial outage.
