Operations have resumed as normal but the UK aviation network is facing a second day of disruption following a widespread technical failure at air traffic control provider NATS.
The immediate problem affecting the NATS system has been fixed, but the impact is still being felt across the aviation network. Demand has been strong in the last weeks of the summer travel season, but airlines have had to re-build their schedules when aircraft and crews were left out of position and passengers stranded.
The priority for the organization had been to restore the system safely before looking into the circumstances behind the failure, NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe said. The incident was unprecedented in NATS’s 50-year history, Rolfe said at the Wednesday morning media briefing, citing the extraordinary nature of the technical problem.
He also dismissed the idea that a cyber attack was the cause of the disruption and said NATS would launch a “very, very thorough investigation” into what happened. Rolfe is also to discuss the incident with the Transport Secretary .
When asked if he was thinking about his position after the defeat, Rolfe said he always takes full responsibility.
Disruption has been widespread across the UK. Flight tracker service Flightradar24 estimated that around 1,300 flights to and from UK airports were canceled on Tuesday. A further 246 cancelations had been recorded at Heathrow by 6am on Wednesday and 33 at Gatwick.
The effects are not limited to the airports directly affected by the original failure. Airlines are faced with the complicated task of repositioning aircraft, rescheduling crew timetables and helping passengers whose journeys have been disrupted.
Carriers are working to restore operations, but these knock-on effects could mean more cancelations and delays, even if the NATS air traffic control system is now running normally.
