Air traffic is severely disrupted on Monday across several regions of the United Kingdom following a technical issue affecting the Prestwick air traffic control center in Scotland. The incident mainly impacts flights departing from Scottish airports as well as those crossing the airspace of northern England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Delays have been reported notably at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, and Belfast.
The Prestwick center, operated by National Air Traffic Services (NATS), manages a significant portion of air traffic in the northern part of the country. To maintain operational safety, traffic restrictions have been implemented while engineers work to identify the cause of the failure. Airports located south of Manchester are largely unaffected by the disruptions.
A New Failure Following Early September Disruptions
This new difficulty occurs less than two weeks after a major failure that paralyzed part of the UK’s air traffic. On September 8, a software defect in NATS’s flight management system caused the cancellation of about 2,000 flights and affected hundreds of thousands of passengers. NATS specifies that Monday’s incident is unrelated to that previous failure.
Several airlines and airports are asking travelers to check their flights before heading to the airport, as schedules may change depending on the resolution of the problem. At least 24 flights had already been canceled on Monday, according to initial information, while many others were delayed. The new disruption comes as the reliability of UK air traffic control infrastructure is under increased scrutiny following the early-month incident.
