Baghdad: A technical fault led to the cancellation of approximately 1,100 flights at airports across the United Kingdom, disrupting travel plans for thousands of passengers. The British air traffic control authority announced that the malfunction caused significant disruptions to flights to and from the country’s airports.

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. The authority later confirmed that the fault had been rectified and operations had returned to normal, with efforts underway to minimize further flight delays. Despite this, the situation was described as “extremely frustrating,” with apologies extended to both passengers and airlines.

Heathrow Airport, the largest and busiest airport in Britain located west of London, was among those impacted by the outage. Other affected airports included Gatwick Airport south of the capital, as well as airports in Liverpool, Birmingham, and Edinburgh. Dublin Airport in Ireland also reported the cancellation of dozens of flights due to the issue.

British Airways announced that it had to cancel or divert over 100 flights, affecting tens of thousands of passengers. Meanwhile, Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair reported that more than 65,000 passengers were impacted by the disruptions, with over 50 flight cancellations.

This incident follows a previous technical malfunction in July that led to the cancellation of dozens of flights to and from the UK. However, the most severe air traffic control system failure in the country occurred earlier in 2023, causing delays or cancellations for hundreds of flights, affecting more than 700,000 passengers.