More than 2,000 flights were cancelled in just two days in the UK following a technical failure affecting the country's air traffic control system.
© Peter Nicholls/Getty Images
09/09/2026
by
Lusa
A company specialized in aviation analysis Cirium registered that, throughout Tuesday, 1,746 flights (903 departures and 843 arrivals) were cancelled due to the technical incident.
Already today 327 other flights (140 departures and 187 arrivals) were suspended.
In this sense, during the first day of interruptions, at least 30% of scheduled flights in the UK were cancelled, while today the percentage is around 5%.
The most affected airport is Heathrow, London, the largest traffic in the UK and one of the busiest in Europe, which has so far had to cancel 120 arrivals and 67 scheduled departures.
Of the more than 300 flights suspended today, at least 190 belong to British Airways routes, which stated that “with so many planes and crews off-site, they have no choice but to cancel flights.”.
The head of the British air traffic control operator (NATS), Martin Rolfe, today ruled out in statements to BBC Radio that the technical problem had been caused by a cyberattack, and ensured that an “exhaustive” investigation would be carried out to clarify what happened.
In August 2023, more than 700,000 people were delayed or cancelled on flights due to a failure in NATS processing systems, while in July 2025, another “technical problem” in a control center near London – resolved in a few minutes – also affected dozens of routes.