Some Irish flights cancelled as UK air traffic control experiences technical issue

The UK’s National Air Traffic Control Service are working to resolve the issue.

Passengers in a number of airports are facing delays and rescheduled flights as the NATS work to resolve a technical issue.

The service have stressed that UK airspace is not closed, but air traffic flow restrictions are in place to ensure safety.

It’s a particularly busy travel day for UK airports, today being the country’s summer bank holiday.

As reported by ABC News, NATS has not given an estimate of how long it would take to fix the problem, or what had caused it, but European air traffic authority Eurocontrol has warned of “very high” delays because of a “flight data processing system failure” in the U.K.

The UK national air traffic control service @NATS is working to resolve a technical issue. UK airspace is not closed but @NATS has applied air traffic flow restrictions to ensure they can maintain safety. Please contact your airline for the very latest status of your flight. https://t.co/sOJC80avBY

— Dublin Airport (@DublinAirport) August 28, 2023

NATS are currently investigating the air traffic issue in the UK. 

Airports both inside and out of the UK have said passengers can expect delays and cancellations.

Dublin Airport have advised travellers to contact their airlines for the latest status of their flights.

Speaking to Sky News, Aviation analyst and former BA pilot Alastair Rosenschein said that the air traffic system may have suffered “some kind of patchy failure as opposed to a total shutdown,” and has predicted that “disruption will be quite severe at some airports” with the potential for some U.K.-bound flights to land in other European countries in order to reduce the flow of inbound planes.

Header image via Getty 

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