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Mitchell Labiak and Simon Browning reported the chaos that ensued at airports in the UK and beyond due to an outage in the country’s air traffic control system. The fault, lasting a mere 20 minutes, resulted in the grounding of planes across the nation and led to 150 flight cancellations and continuing delays into the following day. Many travelers were left stranded, facing uncertainty and frustration.
NATS, the organization responsible for managing the UK’s airspace, attributed Wednesday’s disruption to a “radar-related issue” at its national air traffic control center in Swanwick. While the problem was swiftly resolved by switching to a backup system, this incident had echoes of a major outage in August 2023 that affected over 700,000 passengers and led to the cancellation of 500 flights. Despite speculation, there is no evidence that the recent disruption was caused by a cyber attack.
The response from airlines to the outage was critical, with calls for NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign. Ryanair and EasyJet expressed disappointment at the recurring failures within the air traffic control system, highlighting the impact on their customers. Although some defended NATS’s overall track record, others questioned the lack of transparency regarding the cause of the outage and called for greater accountability.
Amidst discussions of whether the UK’s skies are too congested, calls for expanded capacity in the south east of England have surfaced. The Heathrow Airlines Operators Committee advocates for additional runways to alleviate the strain on the system, particularly during peak travel times. While the government supports airport expansion plans, environmental concerns regarding increased emissions and air pollution have raised objections from critics
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