UK air travellers have been caught up in disruption for the second time in less than a month, after National Air Traffic Services reported a technical issue at its Prestwick control centre in Scotland. The fault, flagged on a Monday morning, forced Nats to apply air traffic flow restrictions to keep flying safe, which meant slower departures and arrivals across a swath of the country.
Airports caught up in the disruption included Manchester, Belfast City, Belfast International, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Nats said airports south of Manchester were largely unaffected, but flights heading north and departures from Scottish airports faced delays. London Stansted was running normally, though some of its departures heading into Prestwick-controlled airspace could also run late.
The timing is awkward, to put it mildly. Just weeks earlier, a "software defect" at Nats triggered a nationwide meltdown that disrupted more than 2,000 flights. Nats was quick to point out that the new problem is unrelated to that earlier failure, and engineers were on site working to fix it. But airlines have run out of patience.
EasyJet said the repeat incident "calls into question the resilience of Nats' systems" and argued firm action is needed to stop the failures recurring. British Airways said it was disappointed, noting the fault was entirely outside its control while it worked to limit the fallout. Ryanair, never one to hold back, blasted "yet another Nats failure" and warned of delays on UK and Ireland routes, pointing affected passengers to its app for updates.
For anyone flying, the practical takeaway is simple: when air traffic control hiccups hit, the disruption is out of the airlines' hands, and the knock-on effects can ripple through the day even after the fault is fixed. Check your airline's app or flight tracker before heading to the airport, and know your rights — under UK rules, airlines must still offer care and rebooking options even when the cause is air traffic control, though compensation may not apply since it's outside their control. If you're connecting through a hub like Manchester or flying between the UK and Ireland or Scotland, build in extra buffer time during any reported Nats incident.
