Heathrow and Gatwick LIVE: Hundreds more London flights cancelled today as passengers face 'horrible' knock-on from NATS collapse, tell me about this news in (https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/heathrow-flights-cancelled-latest-wednesday-gatwick-nats-b1295995.html?page=3)
09-09-2026
The news report from The Standard covers the aftermath of a major air traffic control technical failure across the UK:
- Mass Cancellations and Delays: Following a system failure at National Air Traffic Services (NATS), hundreds more flights were cancelled at London airports, with Heathrow reporting over 200 cancellations early in the morning and Gatwick also suffering significant impacts. This followed around 1,300 flights being cancelled nationwide during the initial collapse.
- Severe Knock-On Effects: Travel experts, including Simon Calder, warned of “horrible” ongoing repercussions because dozens of aircraft and crews were left out of position overnight, disrupting incoming and outgoing schedules into Wednesday.
- Airline and Airport Impact:
- British Airways had to cancel or divert over 100 flights, affecting tens of thousands of travelers, and urged passengers whose flights were cancelled to avoid traveling to airports.
- Ryanair reported disruption for more than 65,000 passengers and cancelled dozens of flights.
- Manchester Airport and other regional hubs also warned passengers that schedule recoveries and delays would persist throughout the day.
- Cause and Scrutiny: NATS stated the disruption stemmed from a fault in its “flight processing system.” Although a fix was applied and systems began recovering, NATS CEO Martin Rolfe faced questioning from Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander regarding the failure.