Britain's air traffic control chief has stated that a software fault which disrupted travel for tens of thousands of passengers and led to a wave of flight cancellations on Tuesday is not believed to be the result of a cyberattack. The disruption caused over 1,000 flights to be grounded, prompting the air traffic authority to launch a full-scale investigation. Airlines launched sharp criticism on Wednesday, calling it unacceptable that three major failures have occurred within just three years.

On September 8, 2026, at London's Heathrow Airport Terminal 3, passengers dragged their luggage through long queues as flight schedules descended into chaos following a system malfunction at the UK's National Air Traffic Services (NATS). Martin Rolfe, the head of the UK's air traffic control, said he does not consider the software issue an act of cyber aggression. "We are certainly going to do a very thorough, full investigation. At the moment, we have ruled out the cyber element, and we don't see it as a cyberattack," Rolfe told the BBC Radio 4 Today program on Wednesday. He added, "In our 50 years of operation, we have never seen this kind of failure before, so it is something that we have not seen before."

Data from the flight tracking website Flightradar24 indicates that a total of 1,300 flights to and from UK airports were cancelled on Tuesday, with an additional 177 cancellations accumulating by early Wednesday morning. The vast majority of the cancelled flights were concentrated at London's Heathrow Airport, one of Europe's busiest hubs. London Stansted, Gatwick, as well as Birmingham and Manchester airports, were also severely impacted. NATS confirmed the technical fault shortly before 2 PM local time on Tuesday. Although the issue was rectified by 7:30 PM, the knock-on effects of grounded planes, misplaced aircraft and crew, and staff hitting their shift limits extended the turmoil well into Wednesday. Officials urged passengers planning to travel on Wednesday to check with their airlines for the latest flight information.

Rolfe stated that NATS accepts responsibility for the impact this incident has had on passengers, airlines, and airports. "We do not take the decision to restrict流量 lightly and only do so when we have a problem that we cannot solve quickly enough to keep aircraft safe," he told the BBC. "We will do everything we possibly can to recover this highly complex system as quickly as we can, as soon as conditions allow," he added. NATS provides air traffic control services to 15 UK airports, handling approximately 2.5 million flights annually and managing the high-altitude airspace used by commercial aircraft.

Airlines were vocal in their criticism of the agency and its management on Wednesday, noting that this incident marks the third major technical failure in recent years. A radar technology fault in July 2025 led to the cancellation of more than 150 flights, while a failure in NATS's flight planning subsystem during the August 2023 bank holiday weekend sparked days of widespread disruption across the country. Neil McMahon, Chief Operations Officer at Ireland's Ryanair Holdings, described the NATS failure as "extremely bad", affecting both holidaymakers and business travelers alike. "It is unbelievable that NATS continues to increase the fees it charges airlines and passengers while its service levels deteriorate. After the 2023 system崩溃, we were told lessons would be learned... yet here we are, tragedy struck again," McMahon said in a statement.

A spokesperson for the budget carrier Wizz Air expressed deep disappointment, stating, "It is extremely disappointing that another technical故障 at NATS has caused widespread disruption across the UK aviation network." The spokesperson added, "The fault is entirely outside of the control of airlines, and yet again, passengers are facing delays and cancellations." Heathrow has recently endured a series of disruptive events: a fire over the weekend interrupted rail services to the UK's largest airport, and in March 2025, the entire airport was closed for nearly a full day due to a fire sparked by a grid failure.