All outbound UK flights hit by air traffic control 'technical issue'
Date: 16:43 BST
Title: Holidaymakers hit at Liverpool airport
Content: Rozina SiniBBC News
Kirk Ryan, from Liverpool, is on a Jet2 plane at Liverpool airport with his wife and two children, aged two and seven.
They have been told their flight to Turkey cannot leave due to the air traffic control issue.
'We were on the runway then the pilot announced there was a major outage," he tells me.
"They said [...] there was a catastrophic air traffic failure in London."
Ryan explains the plane had been on the runway for an hour, and adds: "The pilot
has been very transparent.
"They want
to save fuel so they've pulled us back to the gate and the back doors are open
so they can get some air flowing, so they can turn the air conditioning off to
preserve fuel.
"The pilot
said there's a 140 Jet2 planes under the same instruction.
"The
children are devastated but they've been allowed onto the flight deck."
Update:
Date: 16:36 BST
Title: All departures at Edinburgh also being held
Content: Another airport in the UK is reporting issues now.
Edinburgh airport says all departures are being held due to the NATS technical issue.
"We are waiting for further information from NATS and will provide updates when possible," the airport says on X. "Please check with your airline for the latest information on your flight."
Update:
Date: 16:35 BST
Title: Technical issue resolved, NATS says, but disruption continues
Content: The latest update from NATS - short for National Air Traffic Services - is in.
"Our engineers have now restored the system that was affected this afternoon," the statement says.
"We are in the process of resuming normal operations in the London area.
"We continue to work closely with airline and airport customers to minimise disruption.
"We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused."
Update:
Date: 16:34 BST
Title: Flights suspended at Birmingham
Content: A Birmingham airport spokesperson says: "Due to a national issue with air traffic control in
the South of England, departing flights have been temporarily suspended.
"We
will provide further updates on this and apologise for the inconvenience it may
cause."
Update:
Date: 16:32 BST
Title: Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports all affected
Content: Simon BrowningTransport producer
Manchester Airport Group says all outbound departures from Manchester Airport, Stansted and East Midlands are now on hold.
Inbound aircraft on final approach to these airports can land, but nothing else, which the airport say will lead to diversions.
As we just reported, London Gatwick Airport has just tweeted that a technical issue impacting NATS is affecting all outbound flights across the UK.
There are currently no departures from London Gatwick while the situation is resolved. It is working with NATS to resume flights as quick as possible.
Gatwick says inbound flights are still landing at the airport.
This is the second time in two years NATS has suffered a huge outage, the last was during a summer bank holiday weekend in 2023.
A huge amount of work has been done to try avoid this situation happening again.
Update:
Date: 16:30 BST
Title: All outbound flights from UK affected
Content: We're now hearing from Gatwick airport.
"A technical issue impacting NATS is affecting all outbound flights across the UK," Gatwick says, adding:
"There are currently no departures from London Gatwick while the situation is being resolved.
We are working with NATS to resume flights as quickly as possible.
"Inbound flights are still landing at the airport. Passengers should check the status of their flights with their airline."
Update:
Date: 16:23 BST
Title: Statement in full from air traffic control centre
Content: The National Air Traffic Services (Nats) says:
"As a result of a technical issue at NATS Swanwick air traffic control centre, we are limiting the number of aircraft flying in the London control area in order to ensure safety, which is always our first priority.
"We apologise for any delays this may cause.
"Our engineers are working hard to resolve the problem as quickly as possible and we are working closely with airlines to help minimise disruption.
"At this stage we cannot say how long it will be before operations are back to normal. Please check with your airline on the status of your flight."
Update:
Date: 16:23 BST
Title: 'Engineers are working hard to resolve problem'
Content: We've a bit more to bring you now from National Air Traffic Services (Nats).
They say: "Our engineers are working hard to resolve the problem as quickly as possible and we are working closely with airlines to help minimise disruption."
We'll bring you the statement in full in our next post.
Update:
Date: 16:19 BST
Title: Number of aircraft flying in London limited due to technical issue
Content: Due to a technical issue at an air traffic control centre, the number of flights in the London area is being limited.
Stay with us for more.
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