Hundreds of flights across Europe were canceled on Monday after Britain’s air traffic control service experienced a “technical issue” that caused widespread disruption on one of the country’s busiest travel days of the year.
More than 200 flights departing from Britain were canceled, according to Cirium, the aviation analytics company, along with 271 that were scheduled to arrive in the country on Monday. Many other flights would be delayed by more than eight hours, “which will inevitably result in a cancellation,” Cirium added.
NATS, Britain’s National Air Traffic Service, said that a technical problem had affected its ability to automatically process flight plans, which meant that the information had to be entered manually, slowing down the process.
While British airspace was not closed at any time, NATS restricted the number of flights departing from airports in order to maintain safety while its engineers tried to fix the problem. At about 3 p.m. local time NATS said it had resolved the issue, but noted that air traffic remained disrupted. Britain’s government has a 49 percent stake in NATS, which is a public-private partnership.
The delays hit during a particularly heavy travel period, as people returned from summer vacations or extended trips on Monday’s “bank holiday,” or national day off, in Britain. Customers were advised to check the status of their flight before traveling to airports.
Thousands of holidaymakers spent hours stuck in airports or on runway tarmac, facing long delays or uncertain departure times.
In Palma de Mallorca, Jon Hughes, 49, boarded a plane bound for the English city of Leeds at about 1 p.m. local time with his two children, ages 13 and 15. Once on board, he said, they were told the plane had been allotted a departure slot in about seven hours.
“It’s very hot and kids are getting restless,” he said in a message. “We don’t know how long we will be stuck on the plane. Or even if we will get home today.”
The British budget airline Jet2 said that the issue cased significant delays to “all flights departing and returning to the UK.”
