Manchester Airport warning over continued delays and cancellations after UK air traffic control issues

Manchester Airport is warning passengers of continued delays and cancellations due to issues with air traffic control across the UK. 

Thousands of passengers have seen their travel plans severely impacted after a ‘network-wide failure of UK air traffic control systems’ on bank holiday Monday. Controllers were having to input flight plans manually due to a fault with its systems meaning they could not process the same volume - "traffic flow restrictions" having to be implemented.

While the National Air Traffic Services issues were fixed late on Monday afternoon - the impact continues to be felt at airports including Manchester.

In a new statement released on Tuesday morning, the airport said: "Following yesterday's nationwide technical issue that affected air traffic control, there continues to be some delays and cancelations.

"Please check the status of your flight with your airline before travelling to the airport. As our airlines look to accommodate passengers whose travel plans have been disrupted over the past 24 hours, our terminals may be busier than usual at times. We are working hard with our airlines and their handling agents to get you through the airport as smoothly as possible. We thank you for your understanding."

NATS, the national air traffic controllers, said in a statement on Monday afternoon: “We have identified and remedied the technical issue affecting our flight planning system this morning.

“We are now working closely with airlines and airports to manage the flights affected as efficiently as possible.  Our engineers will be carefully monitoring the system’s performance as we return to normal operations.

“The flight planning issue affected the system’s ability to automatically process flight plans, meaning that flight plans had to be processed manually which cannot be done at the same volume, hence the requirement for traffic flow restrictions.

“Our priority is always to ensure that every flight in the UK remains safe and we are sincerely sorry for the disruption this is causing. Please contact your airline for information on how this may affect your flight.”