WorldHundreds of flights were cancelled on Tuesday due to a technical problem in Britain's air traffic control system that caused disruptions at major airports across the U.K.Technical issue fixed, but recovery taking longer than hoped, officials sayThe Associated Press · Posted: Sep 08, 2026 1:59 PM EDT | Last Updated: September 8Listen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.Stranded passengers gather after some departing flights were cancelled at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 in London on Tuesday. Several major British airports were disrupted after air traffic control provider NATS experienced a technical issue. (Isabel Infantes/Reuters)Hundreds of flights were cancelled on Tuesday due to a technical problem in Britain's air traffic control system that caused disruptions at major airports across the U.K.Britain's National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said a problem was identified in its flight processing system, which affected flights across the U.K.The cancellations and delays renewed scrutiny of NATS three years after a flight-plan processing failure caused even more widespread disruption. By Tuesday afternoon, NATS said the issue affecting its flight ​data processing system had been resolved. It had earlier said that "safety was not compromised.""Recovery from today’s system issue has taken longer than we had hoped. Our system issue is now resolved, we are operating normally and working as hard ​as possible to clear the backlog of flights," NATS said on X. It later said ​in an update that it would take time to recover from the disruption, and that "this has been a very complex recovery and has ⁠created difficulties for the whole aviation network."CEO Martin ⁠Rolfe told Sky News that NATS hadn't yet "fully done the investigation" to find cause of the problem.ℹ️ Technical issue<br><br>Recovery from today’s system issue has taken longer than we had hoped . Our system issue is now resolved, we are operating normally and working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights. (1/2) <a href="https://t.co/NpFp3PBDo7">https://t.co/NpFp3PBDo7</a>—NATS"We don't have an idea yet of exactly what went wrong," Rolfe said. At least 625 flights to and from U.K. airports, including London Heathrow, were cancelled, affecting services operated by multiple airlines, such as British Airways, EasyJet, KLM and Lufthansa, according to Flightradar24.Some passengers took to social media to complain about being stuck on the tarmac for hours before their flights were eventually cancelled. Many expressed frustration about a lack of communication from airlines.Stranded passengers use their phones at Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 on Tuesday. Some expressed frustration over a lack of communication from airlines about the delays. (Isabel Infantes/Reuters)The affected airports included Stansted and City in London, as well as those in Manchester, Birmingham, Gatwick and Scotland. They warned passengers to check the status of their flight with their airline.Budget airline EasyJet said some of its flights were "unable to operate" and that the system failure caused "delays to flights across Europe."Calls for resignations, reformRyanair said around 150,000 of its passengers had been affected by delays of up to eight hours and that it had cancelled more than 200 flights, and called on Rolfe to resign. "How many more failures do passengers have to suffer ​before overpaid failure NATS CEO, Martin Rolfe, accepts responsibility for his repeated mismanagement and resigns?" Ryanair Chief Operating Officer Neal McMahon said.NATS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on McMahon's statement.Wizz Air ⁠also called for urgent reform of the air traffic controller, saying airlines, passengers and airports should not continue to bear the consequences of recurring ⁠system failures."A critical national infrastructure provider should not repeatedly bring the aviation system to a standstill. NATS is simply not fit for purpose in its ⁠current ⁠form," Wizz Air said.Britain's aviation regulator said it would ​expect NATS to share a full report of Tuesday's incident. The Civil Aviation Authority said ⁠it would then consider whether any further steps need to be taken to secure the reliability of the U.K.'s air traffic control system. With files from Reuters