Technical failure disrupts hundreds of UK flights during afternoon peak

A computer fault in the UK's air traffic control system cancelled more than 120 flights on Tuesday. The problem affected the system that processes flight information. Airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, and Edinburgh were all disrupted. Airlines such as British Airways and Easyjet had to cancel departures, though arriving flights were less affected. Engineers fixed the fault during the afternoon, but normal flight schedules were not expected to return until around 8pm. A very similar failure happened in August 2023, when over 2,000 flights were cancelled and around 700,000 passengers were affected. After that incident, regulators told the air traffic service to prepare better backup plans. Tuesday's disruption shows those problems have not gone away completely.