UK airports are scrambling to resume services after an hours-long air traffic control outage forced the cancellation of about 2,000 flights across several transport hubs this week, leaving passengers stranded.

A number of key regional carriers scrapped hundreds of flights to and from London airports Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted on Tuesday. Although some flights have now resumed, many travellers continued to face cancellations and delays on Wednesday.

National Air Traffic Services (NATS), the UK’s air traffic control provider, has faced criticism for the outage.

UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander met with NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe on Wednesday, raising “significant concerns at the scale of disruption” and requesting an investigation into what went wrong, according to a Downing Street spokesperson.

Airports in London – including Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted – reported disruption, as well as in Manchester. In total, more than 1,750 flights arriving into and departing from UK airports were canceled on Tuesday, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics firm. On Wednesday, at least 291 flights were canceled, Cirium said.

Heathrow said Wednesday morning that flights “are operating” but disruptions may continue as airlines “reposition aircraft and crew.” Travelers were told to check with their airline before traveling. Gatwick and Stansted issued similar statements.

Heathrow is the world’s seventh-busiest airport by passenger traffic in 2025, according to data from the Airports Council International. More than 84 million people passed through last year.

This is not the first time in recent years that a major outage has affected passengers at Heathrow and other UK airports.

In August 2023, several UK airports and airlines were forced to cancel hundreds of departures and flight arrivals on the final day of the summer public holiday weekend after a major glitch beset NATS.

Several budget airlines condemned NATS’ delay in resolving the disruptions this week.

Irish budget airline Ryanair said 65,000 of its passengers had been disrupted by the issue on Tuesday and that it had canceled more than 50 scheduled flights. That disruption caused an immediate loss of up to $4.06 million (£3 million) for the airline, according to Reuters.

British Airways, the UK’s flag carrier, had “no choice” but to cancel more than 190 flights, the airline said on a social media post Wednesday.

NATS said on Wednesday that operations were “stable” and confirmed a “full investigation” would take place to “identify any further action needed.”

“We continue to work closely with airlines and airports to support their recovery,” NATS said in a statement. “We would also like to reiterate our apology to all those affected – passengers, airlines and airports – by our system issue yesterday,” the statement added.

‘Like trying to get out of Alcatraz’

Social media was flooded with passengers expressing frustrations and sharing photos of massive crowds snaking through airport halls.

One X user called it the “single most stressful and disappointing experience” they’ve had with any transport, adding British Airways offered a replacement “24 hour 4 flight transit for a 2 and a half hour flight to Rome.”

Josie Donoghue was stuck on a plane for three hours at Gatwick airport, before her Ryanair flight to Ireland was canceled, according to the Associated Press news agency.

“Getting through that airport was like trying to get out of Alcatraz,” she told the news agency, referring to the former island prison in San Francisco Bay. “It’s just an absolute nightmare down there. It’s the only word I can use to describe it.”

Some on social media also praised the ground staff for their help during the chaotic situation.

The disruption has impacted some Americans trying to get home after holidaying in Europe. One family trying to fly back to Connecticut after traveling in Santorini, Greece, has been left stranded at London’s Heathrow airport.

All hotels near the airport have been booked out and the family ended up sleeping on the airport’s floor, they told UK news agency PA Media.

Knock-on effects have been felt in other countries too.

Air India said in a statement on X that the outage had forced India’s flagship carrier to “divert, delay or cancel multiple flights scheduled to operate to and from UK airports.”

Qatar Airways also warned of delays and potential re-routing of flights to and from the UK.

In a statement Tuesday, Ryanair’s chief operating officer Neal McMahon called for NATS’Rolfe to resign.

Referring to the 2023 chaos, McMahon said: “Families travelling on holiday, people travelling for work and thousands of visitors to the UK have once again paid the price for NATS’ abhorrent failure.”

“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,” a spokesperson for Wizz Air, a European low-cost carrier, said, per Reuters.

Rolfe defended his organization, telling public broadcaster the BBC that NATS’ systems are fit for purpose, and apologized for Tuesday’s issue.

“Whilst we never want these things to happen – and I absolutely apologize for the fact it has happened today – I do think we’re fit for purpose,” he said.

Since that 2023 incident, UK airports have endured major outages on a yearly basis.

Last year, Heathrow was shut down after a “significant power outage” caused by a large fire nearby. The closure caused travel chaos across the world, upending travelers’ plans with thousands of flights affected. The financial losses from the shutdown were expected to be in the hundreds of millions of pounds.

And in 2024, a global IT software crash caused widespread delays and operational issues at airports worldwide, including those in the UK.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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