Here is a summary of today's developments
Airline passengers have been warned that flight disruption could persist for days, after a technical meltdown in UK air traffic control left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded or delayed on the summer bank holiday.
The transport secretary, Mark Harper, said that despite the technical issue being resolved “flights are still unfortunately affected”.
The national air traffic services (Nats) said they have identified and fixed the technical issues that caused a network-wide failure for air traffic control systems this morning.
A British journalist who faces being stuck in France for up to six days due to the technical issue affecting air traffic control systems said there is uncertainty over who will pay for the extended stay.
The Irish transport minister, Jack Chambers, has warned of a major knock-on effect on flights to and from Ireland as a consequence of the UK air traffic control fault, PA reports.
The BBC presenter Gabby Logan tweeted that she was stuck on a plane on a runway at Budapest airport and passengers had been told they might be waiting for up to 12 hours.
Airline passengers have been warned that flight disruption could persist for days, after a technical meltdown in UK air traffic control left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded or delayed on the summer bank holiday.
Here is our latest lead on the airline chaos:
Luke McLaughlin, a Guardian Sport sub-editor and writer, described arriving at London City airport to “try his luck” after his flight to Zurich was cancelled.
“I was booked on a Swiss flight from London City to Zurich which was cancelled this afternoon”, he said on Monday. “I was on my way to the airport – but having checked live departures I decided there was no point in carrying on as everything was cancelled.
“Then my aunt informed me they had been rebooked from London City to Geneva tonight, then to Zurich tomorrow morning at 6am. (Swiss had rebooked me on a flight via Lisbon arriving tomorrow night at 22.30, eight hours after the family funeral that I was trying to get to ...)
“I decided to come to the airport and try my luck – having been told by two different staff there was no hope of getting on the flight as it was overbooked, a third very helpful member of staff made a call and sorted it out so am now boarding for Geneva. Whether there will be a hotel room tonight I don’t know before going to Zurich early tomorrow.
“My elderly mum has been stuck at Heathrow for hours and says BA have been completely unhelpful and she is about to give up ... while my sister has been booked on a BA flight by Swiss tomorrow from Heathrow, so fingers crossed for that.
“Not a good day for it to happen with so many of our family trying to get to Zurich and a lot of confusion and frustration among passengers.”
Updated
A German couple are considering returning home by train after their flight from London to Stuttgart was cancelled amid chaos in the UK’s air traffic control system.
Myria Mebold, 36, also said that British Airways “didn’t know anything at all” when she and her husband asked about the situation and their flight.
She told PA Media: “We are waiting for any information and checking if we can go back by train or anything, I don’t know. Somehow we have to get back home.”
Asked if BA was helpful, she replied: “No, they didn’t know anything at all. They said the system doesn’t work and they can’t give any information and we have to come back at 6pm and maybe then they can give more information.
“It was a nice day in London but now it is starting to get annoying.”
She said the flight had been delayed to leave the UK after 1am on Tuesday, but planes cannot land at Stuttgart during the night.
Updated
Thousands of passengers have been hit by delays and cancellations caused by air traffic control technical problems. But what legal rights do they have?
Under UK law, those affected have legal rights that oblige the airlines to provide support to customers flying from a UK airport, arriving in the country on an EU or UK airline, or arriving at an EU airport on a UK airline.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) website says that in the case of a “significant delay”, the airline must provide a reasonable amount of food and drink, commonly in the form of vouchers, refunds for the cost of calls, and accommodation for passengers stuck overnight and transport to a hotel or their home.
A significant delay is defined as more than two hours for a short-haul flight of under 1,500km (930 miles), more than three hours for medium haul of up to 3,500km, and more than four hours for long-haul flights.
The CAA accepts airlines are sometimes unable to organise such support, so passengers should make their own “reasonable” arrangements and keep receipts to claim money back, but the authority adds that “luxury hotels and alcohol” are unlikely to be paid for.
Airlines are required to pay compensation if flights arrive more than three hours late, but only when it is their fault, meaning the air traffic control problems could fall under the definition of “exceptional circumstances”, meaning the carriers are exempt from paying out.
Updated
UK air passengers faced flight delays and cancellations on Monday after the national air traffic service was hit by a technical glitch and restrictions were placed on UK airspace. The glitch was later resolved but it continued to affect departures from and arrivals to UK airports.
Read our full explainer of why flights were disrupted and whether passengers can get refunds:
Flights "are still unfortunately affected”, Transport Secretary reveals
The transport secretary, Mark Harper, said that despite the technical issue being resolved “flights are still unfortunately affected”.
He tweeted that he would “encourage all passengers to read the UK Civil Aviation Authority’s guidance & be aware of their rights when flights are delayed or cancelled”.
Despite @NATS resolving the technical issue behind today’s air traffic control issues, flights are still unfortunately affected.
— Mark Harper (@Mark_J_Harper) August 28, 2023
I’d encourage all passengers to read @UK_CAA’s guidance & be aware of their rights when flights are delayed or cancelled 👇 https://t.co/K4coeXbUCX
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A British journalist who faces being stuck in France for up to six days due to the technical issue affecting air traffic control systems said there is uncertainty over who will pay for the extended stay.
Rory Dollard, 40, a cricket correspondent for PA Media, said he and other passengers stuck at Bergerac Dordogne Périgord airport have heard “absolutely nothing” about what caused the technical fault, which led to his Ryanair flight not taking off.
He added that he was told it may take up to six days before he and wife, Joanne, 40, and children Emily, 10, and Arthur, eight, can return home to Skipton, North Yorkshire.
He said: “I’ve never been in a situation like this before and because of the language barrier, it’s hard to work out exactly who’s responsible for which part of the cost.
“If you need to find a hotel for the next five/six nights, who’s paying for this? Is it Ryanair? Is it your insurer? Is it somebody else?”
He added that he could miss covering three England matches, while his wife, who is a social worker, could face delays to “important cases”.
Updated
Flights will remain “significantly disrupted” for the rest of Monday despite the technical issue with air traffic control being resolved, a spokesperson for Heathrow airport said.
According to PA, they said:
We ask passengers to only travel to the airport if their flight is confirmed as still operating.
Teams across Heathrow are working as hard as they can to minimise the knock-on impacts and assist those whose journeys have been affected.
Britain’s track and field stars are among those who have been hit by the significant flight delays after their brilliant performance at the World Athletics Championships.
The team had planned to head home from Budapest after winning 10 medals – their joint-best ever in the event. However, as the squad arrived at Budapest Ferenc Liszt airport to check in they learned they flight back had been cancelled.
It means about half the squad of athletes, coaches and support staff – about 30 people in total – have had to find a hotel for the night and are still unsure when they will get home.
The home secretary, Suella Braverman, said she sympathised with anyone affected by the air traffic control problems, PA reports.
She said:
This issue is evolving right now, as we speak. What we do know is that there has been a national outage at national air traffic control and that this has affected UK airspace.
It will affect all incoming and outgoing flights and also those aircraft which are in the UK airspace right now.
I am very cognisant that this will disrupt people’s travel plans – those who are waiting to arrive in the UK, those waiting to depart, and I do sympathise with any disruption they may be experiencing.
Updated
The transport secretary, Mark Harper, said the technical issues affecting UK air traffic control systems have now been resolved, but urged passengers to still contact their airline for specific flight information.
In a tweet, he said:
The technical issue affecting Nats has now been resolved. Aviation minister Charlotte Vere and I are continuing to work with Nats to help them manage affected flights and support passengers.
All passengers should still contact their airline for specific flight information.
The technical issue affecting @NATS has now been resolved.
— Mark Harper (@Mark_J_Harper) August 28, 2023
Aviation Minister @CharlotteV and I are continuing to work with NATS to help them manage affected flights and support passengers.
All passengers should still contact their airline for specific flight information. https://t.co/IWgZJlXl91
Updated
Issue with UK air traffic control system ‘identified and remedied’
The national air traffic services (Nats) said they have identified and fixed the technical issues that caused a network-wide failure for air traffic control systems this morning.
In a statement on their website, Nats said:
We have identified and remedied the technical issue affecting our flight planning system this morning. We are now working closely with airlines and airports to manage the flights affected as efficiently as possible.
Our engineers will be carefully monitoring the system’s performance as we return to normal operations.
The flight planning issue affected the system’s ability to automatically process flight plans, meaning that flight plans had to be processed manually which cannot be done at the same volume, hence the requirement for traffic flow restrictions.
Our priority is always to ensure that every flight in the UK remains safe and we are sincerely sorry for the disruption this is causing. Please contact your airline for information on how this may affect your flight.
Updated
Mark Harper, the transport secretary, has said the UK airspace remains open but traffic flow restrictions are in place.
In the tweet, he added:
Nats [national air traffic services] is working at pace to fix this and aviation minister Charlotte Vere and I are doing all we can to support them.
In the meantime, passengers should contact their airline for up-to-date flight information.
UK airspace remains open but traffic flow restrictions are in place.@NATS is working at pace to fix this and Aviation Minister @CharlotteV and I are doing all we can to support them.
— Mark Harper (@Mark_J_Harper) August 28, 2023
In the meantime, passengers should contact their airline for up to date flight information. https://t.co/RxqPhicsbK
Updated
Air traffic controllers inputting flight plans manually, causing significant delays
The latest update from national air traffic services (Nats) said controllers are having to input flight plans manually due to a fault with its systems.
It apologised for the disruption caused by the failure, which is causing significant delays at UK airports.
In a statement, Nats said:
This morning’s technical issue is affecting our ability to automatically process flight plans.
Until our engineers have resolved this, flight plans are being input manually which means we cannot process them at the same volume, hence we have applied traffic flow restrictions.
Our technical experts are looking at all possible solutions to rectify this as quickly as possible.
Our priority is ensuring every flight in the UK remains safe and doing everything we can to minimise the impact.
Please contact your airline for information on how this may affect your flight. We are sincerely sorry for the disruption this is causing.
Updated
Labour’s shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, said news of delays to flights in and out of the UK was “extremely concerning” for passengers.
She said on X:
Extremely concerning for passengers travelling in and out of the UK on one of the busiest days of the year.
UK airspace is not closed but significant delays expected thanks to a technical fault.
Surprised not to see our Transport Secretary make a statement yet.
Extremely concerning for passengers travelling in and out of the UK on one of the busiest days of the year.
— Louise Haigh (@LouHaigh) August 28, 2023
UK airspace is not closed but significant delays expected thanks to a technical fault.
Surprised not to see our Transport Secretary make a statement yet. https://t.co/yzfcjoV0ma
Updated
PA reports that Ryanair and Aer Lingus have cancelled a number of flights out of and returning to Dublin airport as a result of air traffic control issues in the UK.
Services are also understood to be affected at Cork. The Aer Lingus airline said:
Due to a failure of the UK air traffic control flight planning systems, which is outside of Aer Lingus’ control, there are severe restrictions on all flights into the UK and flying over UK airspace today.
We would ask you to check the status of your flight before coming to the airport today as delays and cancellations are likely.”
Ryanair said:
Due to another UK ATC failure, Ryanair will be forced to delay/cancel a number of flights to/from the UK today, August 28. All affected passengers will be notified of their options to change flights (free of charge) to another Ryanair flight or receive a full refund.
We sincerely apologise for this UK ATC failure which is beyond Ryanair’s control and is affecting all airlines operating to/from the UK.”
Updated
Here are some photos from Heathrow airport after a network failure caused issues with UK air traffic control, leading to major delays.
Updated
The Liberal Democrats have said the prime minister should call a Cobra meeting after a technical fault hit air traffic control in the UK.
The party’s transport spokesperson, Wera Hobhouse, said:
Rishi Sunak and his ministers need to get a grip on this issue urgently and hold a Cobra meeting.
Millions of holidaymakers could be facing huge disruption in the coming days due to this fault and we can’t risk this government being missing in action yet again.
Brits need to know that the government is doing all it can to make sure people aren’t hit with major delays and disruptions in the coming days.
Updated
The Irish transport minister, Jack Chambers, has warned of a major knock-on effect on flights to and from Ireland as a consequence of the UK air traffic control fault, PA reports.
He told RTÉ radio:
There’s traffic flow restrictions have been introduced to maintain safety in the sky and it will have significant impacts on passengers flying in and out of Dublin, and there are multiple slot restrictions.
So, we’d encourage customers to contact their airline for an update but it will have a major impact on Irish travel because, obviously, the nature and the proximity to UK space.
There will be an impact and delays of several hours for many passengers, and we’d encourage them to contact their airlines.
Updated
Sarah Mayor (see 1:30) could be leaving Faro airport in as little as 10 minutes after being told her flight to London might have to wait a total of seven hours.
She said all the passengers were “thrilled” with the news:
The BA staff have been amazing they were just preparing to bring out water and pretzels for everyone before the announcement …
Everyone was pretty relaxed it seemed but I think [there] would have been cracking if we had waited much longer.
The captain had the small children coming up for pictures in the cockpit before the announcement so have to say been really impressed with BA and all the crew
Updated
Delays don’t seem to be easing. Kevin Pashby has tweeted that his flight from Gran Canaria to Manchester has been delayed by more than nine hours.
Delay now extended to over 9 hours. Keeping watch on the app. Hoping @easyJet will advise via email/sms as stated in their app. #airtrafficcontrol #flightdelays pic.twitter.com/UFM9m51KXW
— Kevin Pashby (@KevinPashby) August 28, 2023
Updated
Sarah Mayor, who is stuck at Faro airport in Portugal, with her husband and two young children, has been told their plane might not take off for another five hours after having already waited for two hours.
At 11am we were on the bus about to go to our airplane, which was due to take off at 11.25. After 10 minutes waiting, they got us off the bus and told us there was a system failure in the UK and all flights were grounded to a halt until further notice.
They then boarded the flight but were told by the pilot that there was a very long queue, so they could be waiting for more than five hours.
My husband and I are with our two- and four-year-old so [it is] quite stressful.
They have not been offered any food or drinks yet.
Updated
The BBC presenter Gabby Logan tweeted that she was stuck on a plane on a runway at Budapest airport and passengers had been told they might be waiting for up to 12 hours.
On a plane on the runway at Budapest airport. After almost 3 weeks away from home I am hours from hugging my family. And have just been told UK airspace is shut. We could be here for 12 hours. So we sit on the plane and wait.
— Gabby Logan (@GabbyLogan) August 28, 2023
Updated
Nats has issued another short statementthat says UK airspace is not closed, but that air traffic flow restrictions are in place as a safety measure.
The updated statement says:
We are continuing to work hard to resolve the technical issue. To clarify, UK airspace is not closed, we have had to apply air traffic flow restrictions which ensures we can maintain safety.
Updated
The Glasgow-based airline Loganair warned customers they may experience delays after the “network-wide failure” affected air traffic control systems.
The airline said on X:
There has been a network-wide failure of UK air traffic control computer systems this morning.
Although we are hopeful of being able to operate most intra-Scotland flights on the basis of local coordination and with a minimum of disruption, north-south and international flights maybe subject to delays.
If you are flying with us today, please check our website for the latest information about your flight before setting off for the airport.
There has been a network-wide failure of UK air traffic control computer systems this morning. Although we are hopeful of being able to operate most intra-Scotland flights on the basis of local coordination and with a minimum of disruption, north-south and international flights
— Loganair (@FlyLoganair) August 28, 2023
Updated
Thousands of passengers face delays as UK air traffic control system hit by technical fault
UK airspace has been hit by a technical fault, the country’s leading provider of air traffic control services said.
National Air Traffic Services (Nats) said it was experiencing a “technical issue” and had applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety. Passengers boarding flights back to the UK have been told of the fault, according to PA Media.
In a statement, Nats said:
We are currently experiencing a technical issue and have applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety.
Engineers are working to find and fix the fault. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Hundreds of flights in and out of the UK have been delayed with thousands of passengers facing disruption. Some have been told they could face delays of up to 12 hours while engineers seek to tackle the fault.
According to flight tracking sites, few planes have been able to take off from London Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, since 11.30am, while inbound short-haul flights have been held from departure.
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