Baghdad: A technical fault caused the cancellation of approximately 1,100 flights at British airports, the British air traffic control authority announced. The malfunction disrupted flights to and from the country’s airports, leading to widespread cancellations.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, the air traffic control authority stated in a post on its X platform that recovery from the system outage took longer than expected. Although the fault has been fixed and operations have returned to normal, the authority emphasized that every effort is being made to minimize further flight delays. Describing the situation as “extremely frustrating,” the authority issued an apology to both passengers and airlines.

Heathrow Airport, Britain’s largest and busiest, located west of London, confirmed it was affected by the outage. Other impacted airports included Gatwick Airport south of the capital, as well as those in Liverpool, Birmingham, and Edinburgh. Additionally, Dublin Airport in Ireland reported the cancellation of dozens of flights due to the technical fault.

British Airways announced that it had to cancel or divert more than 100 flights, impacting tens of thousands of passengers. Meanwhile, the Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair reported that more than 65,000 passengers were affected, with over 50 flights canceled. This incident follows a similar technical malfunction that led to the cancellation of dozens of flights last July. However, the most severe air traffic control system failure in the UK occurred in 2023, which resulted in delays or cancellations for hundreds of flights, affecting more than 700,000 passengers.