UK air travellers faced further disruption on Wednesday, with 177 flights cancelled across the country as Britain’s air traffic control service scrambled to recover from a technical glitch that it has ruled out as a cyberattack, news agency AFP reported.
Aircraft tracking website FlightRadar24 reported the fresh cancellations after 1,300 flights to and from UK airports were cancelled on Tuesday, affecting tens of thousands of passengers. Nearly all of Wednesday’s cancellations were at London Heathrow, Britain’s busiest airport, FlightRadar24 said in a post on X.
All told, 1300 flights were canceled to/from airports in the UK on Tuesday.
177 flights have been canceled so far on Wednesday, nearly all at London-Heathrow. pic.twitter.com/LWdZcDp36i
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) September 9, 2026
The head of the National Air Traffic Services (NATS), Martin Rolfe, said the organisation had ruled out a cyberattack as the cause of the disruption.
“We have at this point ruled out cyber,” Rolfe told BBC Radio.
“We don’t believe it was a cyberattack,” he added.
Rolfe said NATS would conduct a “very, very thorough” investigation into what caused the incident.
NATS warned in an X post late Tuesday that “it will take time to recover” from the outage.
UK news outlets reported that British Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander had summoned Rolfe for a meeting on Wednesday.
Rolfe had earlier told Sky News that he accepted “full responsibility” for the disruption but declined to say whether he was considering quitting his job.
Alexander said on X that she was “seeking assurances that lessons will be learned and systems that support aviation are up to the job”.
Neal McMahon, chief operations officer at Irish budget airline Ryanair, called for Rolfe to be fired, accusing him of having “failed UK travellers”.
Heathrow warns of continued disruption
Heathrow said late Tuesday that departures had resumed after the “technical issue” forced the airport to suspend arrivals.
However, the airport warned that “disruption is expected to continue” and asked passengers to check with their airline before travelling to the airport.
The latest air traffic control disruption follows a technical glitch in July last year that resulted in scores of flights to and from the UK being cancelled, prompting anger from airline chiefs.
Britain also suffered its worst air systems failure in years in 2023, when more than 700,000 passengers were affected after hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled.
Responding to the latest disruption, NATS said: “We know this is hugely frustrating and apologise unreservedly.”
Passengers describe ‘absolute nightmare’
Healthcare worker Josie Donoghue, who was caught up in the disruption, said it had been “an absolute nightmare” at London’s Gatwick airport after she had to disembark her flight to Ireland following three hours stuck on the runway.
“Getting through that airport was like trying to get out of Alcatraz,” she told Britain’s domestic Press Association news agency.
Liverpool, Birmingham, and Edinburgh airports were also affected, while Dublin airport said it had cancelled dozens of flights.
Ryanair said more than 65,000 of its passengers had been disrupted and that it had cancelled more than 50 flights.
English football club Arsenal, which was due to play Napoli in the Champions League on Wednesday in the southern Italian city, was forced to cancel a news conference after the team’s flight was delayed.
(With AFP inputs)
