Gatwick disruption as UK air traffic glitch hits second day

Passengers at London Gatwick are facing a second day of disruption on Wednesday, September 9, as a UK-wide air traffic control technical problem continues to cause delays and cancellations across the airport’s schedule.

Knock-on delays after nationwide air traffic failure

Operations at London Gatwick were heavily affected after a major technical failure in the UK’s National Air Traffic Services (NATS) flight processing system on Tuesday, September 8. Publicly available information indicates the issue forced restrictions on departures and arrivals across multiple UK airports while the fault was investigated and normal capacity gradually restored.

Flight-tracking data collated by several outlets shows that around 1,300 flights to and from UK airports were cancelled on Tuesday alone, affecting tens of thousands of passengers. Gatwick, one of the country’s busiest hubs and a key base for short-haul and leisure traffic, reported widespread schedule disruption alongside Heathrow, Manchester and Stansted.

By early Wednesday morning, reports from aviation data providers and media coverage suggested that several hundred additional cancellations had already been recorded at UK airports, including at Gatwick. Although airspace restrictions had been lifted, many aircraft and crew were out of position, leaving airlines working to rebuild their timetables.

NATS has attributed the trigger for the disruption to a problem within its flight data processing systems rather than external interference. Coverage of statements from the air traffic provider indicates that a cyber attack has been ruled out, with the issue described as a technical glitch that affected the safe handling of flight plans.

Impact on Gatwick’s Wednesday schedule

On Wednesday, September 9, Gatwick warned that delays and cancellations would continue as the airport and its airline customers attempted to clear the backlog. Information released through airport and airline channels, and summarised in travel reports, shows that while the majority of flights were expected to operate, a significant minority were removed from the schedule, particularly in the early part of the day.

Figures cited in UK media early on Wednesday reported dozens of cancellations at Gatwick alone, alongside hundreds more at Heathrow. The disruption affected both arrivals and departures, with short-haul European services and some long-haul routes experiencing extended delays, diversions or last-minute cancellations.

Passengers travelling from Gatwick on Wednesday were advised through public communications to check the status of their flights before setting off for the airport. Airlines also urged travellers to monitor apps, websites and text or email updates as schedules were adjusted and aircraft continued to be repositioned.

Despite the continuing impact, reports from the airport indicated that operations were gradually improving through the day compared with the severe disruption experienced during the peak of Tuesday’s system failure, when many flights were grounded for several hours.

Airlines work to recover aircraft and assist passengers

The technical issue at NATS quickly translated into an operational challenge for airlines using Gatwick. Once flight restrictions were imposed, aircraft and crews ended up at airports different from their planned overnight bases, creating knock-on disruption that persisted into Wednesday, even after the immediate air traffic control problem had been resolved.

Travel industry coverage shows carriers cancelling and consolidating flights at Gatwick to stabilise their networks, while rebooking affected passengers on later services or alternative routes. Some flights originally scheduled to operate from Gatwick were replaced with services from other London airports or nearby European hubs, depending on aircraft availability.

Reports from passenger advocacy specialists and consumer-focused outlets highlight that travellers caught up in the disruption may be entitled to assistance such as meals, hotel accommodation and re-routing under UK air passenger rights regulations, even where the underlying cause is a technical problem at air traffic control. However, compensation rules can vary depending on the classification of the incident, the length of delay and when passengers were informed of changes to their journeys.

With demand for hotel rooms around London already high, some passengers reported difficulty finding accommodation near the airport. Travel reports noted scenes of travellers sleeping in terminals at several airports on Tuesday night, reflecting the scale of the disruption and the challenges involved in reorganising travel at short notice.

Comparison with previous UK air traffic incidents

The latest disruption has drawn comparisons with earlier UK air traffic control issues, including a high-profile outage over the August Bank Holiday weekend in 2023 and a radar-related problem in 2025. In each case, a technical failure within air traffic systems led to widespread delays and cancellations across the country’s airports.

Coverage of the current incident emphasises that NATS has described this week’s problem as distinct from the 2023 failure, though all of them involved limitations on the ability to process flight data. Industry commentators note that, while full shutdowns of UK airspace are rare, even short-lived constraints on air traffic capacity can cause multi-day knock-on effects at busy hubs such as Gatwick.

Gatwick’s position as a major base for low-cost and leisure carriers means that schedule disruption often ripples across extensive point-to-point networks serving holiday destinations. When flights are cancelled late in the day, aircraft may be left overnight at outstations, creating gaps in the following morning’s departures from Gatwick and complicating efforts to get operations back on track.

The recurrence of high-impact technical issues has prompted renewed scrutiny from politicians, passenger groups and airlines about the resilience of the UK’s air traffic infrastructure. Public commentary in the wake of the latest outage has focused on the costs to passengers and airlines and on the need for robust contingency planning.

What Gatwick passengers should expect next

By Wednesday afternoon, the overall direction of travel pointed towards gradual stabilisation rather than fresh escalation of disruption, according to live airport and airline updates summarised in media reports. However, those travelling through Gatwick were still being advised to prepare for longer queues, possible gate changes and short-notice adjustments to departure times.

Travel experts quoted across public coverage recommended that passengers stay in close contact with their airline or tour operator, arriving at the airport in line with standard guidance unless told otherwise and avoiding rebooking independently without checking their rights and options. Many carriers were encouraging customers whose travel was not time-critical to consider postponing trips where flexible tickets allowed.

Looking beyond Wednesday, industry analysis suggested that residual disruption could linger for another day or more on some routes as airlines continued to realign aircraft, crew and maintenance slots. For Gatwick’s high-frequency European connections, schedules were expected to return to more normal patterns relatively quickly, while some long-haul services might take longer to fully recover.

For now, the technical fault at the heart of the incident appears to have been contained, with no evidence from NATS or government statements of an ongoing systems risk. For passengers, however, the focus on Wednesday, September 9 remains on checking flight information carefully, allowing extra time at Gatwick and preparing for the possibility that travel plans may still change at short notice.

The Guardian: UK flight cancellations as NATS boss summoned over technical issue

City A.M.: Gatwick and Heathrow warn of delays after air traffic control meltdown

The Independent: Heathrow and Gatwick delays as disruption continues

RTÉ News: Cyber attack ruled out as UK flights resume after NATS issue