UK airports affected by flight delays due to "technical problem"

Britain’s air traffic control service experienced a “technical problem” on Monday, disrupting hundreds of flights in and out of the country.

The National Air Traffic Service said the issue “affects our ability to process flight plans automatically.” in the current situationHe added that flight plans are now entered manually, “which means we can’t process them in the same volume.”

The agency said that while British airspace was not closed, it had restricted the number of flights departing from airports for safety while trying to fix the problem.

The delays come in a period of heavy travel, as people return from holidays or long trips on “Bank Holiday” Monday, or National Day, in Britain. Customers are advised to check the status of their flights before traveling to airports.

With flight restrictions in place into the afternoon, thousands of travelers remain stuck in airports or on the tarmac, facing long delays or uncertain departure times.

In Palma de Mallorca, John Hughes, 49, boarded a plane for Leeds, England, at around 1pm local time, with his two children, ages 13 and 15. On the plane, he said, they were told the plane had crashed. The departure slot is allocated at about seven hours.

“It is very hot and the children are anxious,” he said in a message. “We don’t know how long we will be stuck on the plane. Or even if we go home today.”

On Monday, 3,049 flights are scheduled to leave British airports and 3,054 arrive, according to aviation analytics company Cirium.

The European air watchdog agency, Eurocontrol, reported that Britain was experiencing a “flight data processing system failure” with “very high individual delays”.

She added: “At present there is no indication when a resolution to the failure will be provided, so no improvements are expected to be made to flights entering UK airspace in the near future.”

Low-cost airline Ryanair said it would have to delay and cancel flights to and from Britain on Monday. It said in a statement that passengers will be able to change their flights or get a full refund.

Jamie Steele, 39, a British nurse returning to Manchester from leave in the Italian city of Pisa, was due to leave at 10.30am local time. Four hours later, he was still sitting in the plane on the runway. The pilot told them they would have time in the next three hours, but added that he was “not sure he trusted the exact time”.

“It’s hard not to know when we’ll be home,” Mr. Steele said in a message.

Heathrow Airport, near London, advised passengers to contact their airlines before heading there, and Edinburgh Airport asked passengers not to come to the site before checking the status of their flight.

Louise Hay, the lawmaker responsible for transport policy for the opposition Labor Party, Description of the disorder on social media as “extremely troubling to commuters” on “one of the busiest days of the year”. She added that she was surprised that the government’s transport minister had not made a statement yet.

Scottish airline Loganair warned on social media of a “network-wide failure of the UK’s air traffic control computer systems this morning”.

The number of departures over the three days of the weekend was set to be 10 percent higher than in the same period a year earlier, according to Cirium, and 83 percent higher than in 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic led to a decline in air travel a lot.

European flights were held up for hours in December 2014 due to a technical problem at the air traffic control center in Swanwick, England.

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