London: Britain’s National Air Traffic Services has restored its flight processing and radar systems after engineers resolved a major technical failure that severely disrupted flight operations across the country.
According to officials, the disruption affected operations at 15 major airports, including London Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Luton and Glasgow.
More than 4,000 flights were estimated to have been affected nationwide, with 1,305 cancelled and around 2,700 delayed.
At London Heathrow, 527 flights were cancelled and 430 delayed, while Gatwick recorded 260 cancellations and 312 delays.
London Stansted also saw 122 flights cancelled and around 300 delayed.
Delays at several airports stretched to between 150 and 200 minutes, while dozens of flights were diverted to other airports because of the system failure.
Officials said technical teams and engineers worked on an emergency basis late into the night to identify the cause of the problem and restore the affected systems.
Air traffic operations have resumed following the restoration of the system, although the large number of cancellations and delays could mean it takes time for normal flight schedules to fully recover.
