Number of Irish flights cancelled over UK technical issue

A number of flights departing from and arriving into Irish airports have been cancelled due to air traffic control issues in the UK.

More than 40 flights, inbound and outbound, have been cancelled at Dublin Airport.

As of 5pm, Dublin Airport said airlines had cancelled 23 outbound and 21 inbound flights and that "further disruption is possible as the evening goes on".

It also said that some flights in and out of Dublin Airport are subject to delays this evening.

"Passengers scheduled to fly this evening are being advised to get in touch with their airline directly for latest updates on their flight," the airport added.

A number of flights to and from Shannon Airport have been cancelled.

Ryanair's 4.35pm flight from Shannon Airport to Birmingham was cancelled; an Aer Lingus flight to London Heathrow scheduled for 9.15pm tonight has also been cancelled; earlier, a 4.10pm Ryanair flight from Birmingham Airport to Shannon was cancelled; and an incoming Aer Lingus flight from London Heathrow to Shannon Airport scheduled to arrive at 8.35pm tonight has been cancelled.

As of 6pm, seven flights in and out of Cork Airport have been cancelled while a number of other flights have been delayed.

Barry Holland, Communications Manager for Cork Airport, said: "Cork Airport has experienced some cancellations and a number of delays as a result of air traffic control issues in the UK.

"Our advice to passengers travelling to and from Cork Airport for the remainder of today is to check the most up to date flights status with their airline directly."

In a post on X, Belfast City Airport said that "there may be some disruption to flights due to arrive in and depart" from the airport.

It comes as hundreds of departing flights at major British airports were disrupted after air traffic control ⁠provider NATS experienced a technical issue.

Recovery from the disruption will "take some time", Nats said, after 425 flights were cancelled.

Ryanair said more than 65,000 of its passengers had been disrupted.

The airline said it had cancelled more than 50 scheduled flights following the problem and that some customers faced delays of up to eight hours.

Birmingham Airport said the issue was affecting airspace in the south of the UK and was "impacting a significant number of departing flights across the country".

Heathrow Airport, the UK's largest airport in London, confirmed it was among those impacted and said the issue was "impacting arriving and departing flights across UK airports".

Manchester Airport Group, the company that operates Manchester Airport, Stansted Airport in Essex and East Midlands Airport in Leicestershire, said flights from all three had been affected by the issue.

Jersey Airport in the Channel Islands, London City Airport, London Southend, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton airports said they were also experiencing some disruption.

Nats, which provides air traffic control services to 15 UK airports, said in a statement it was "investigating a technical issue" causing disruption to some flight departures, and later said it had identified the problem was in its "flight processing system".

The company said: "Our engineers are on site and working urgently to resume normal operations as quickly as possible.

"Flights are still departing and airspace is open, but recovery will take some time. We will provide further updates as soon as possible."

Nats later said it had "implemented a fix" and its flight system was "starting to recover".

Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester among worst affected airports, according to Flightradar24

The worst affected airports are Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham, according to Flightradar24, which said approximately 4% of UK flights have been cancelled or delayed as a result of the issue.

The air tracker found 352 flights to and from Heathrow were delayed out of its daily average of about 1,300.

Meanwhile, 281 Gatwick flights were delayed out of its 850 total operations average. This was 249 out of 650 for Manchester, and 101 out of 300 for Birmingham.

FlightRadar24's director of communications, Ian Petchenik, said: "It’s going to be major disruption not necessarily based on cancellations alone but certainly cancellations and delays including connecting flights."

The 4% statistic is "certainly much higher than normal but overall isn’t a huge impact on operations quite yet".

"I think we will start to see a further wave of cancellations. It sounds like Nats has resolved the issue but once the damage has been done it takes a little time to unwind, so I think we’ll start to see cancellations increase for a while then decrease," he added.

Budget airline EasyJet said some of its flights are "unable to operate" following the issue and that it was causing delays to flights across Europe.

EasyJet said in a statement: "We will do all we can minimise the impact of this for our customers including providing customers on flights unable to operate with their options including a free transfer or refund and meals and hotel accommodation for those who require them."

Last July, a "radar-related issue" caused an air traffic control failure that grounded flights across the UK - disrupting thousands of passengers and forcing the cancellation of more than 160 flights.

The problem happened at Nats' control centre in Swanwick, Hampshire, and affected the vast majority of England and Wales.

In August 2023, more than 700,000 passengers experienced disruption when flights were grounded at UK airports when Nats suffered a technical glitch while processing a flight plan.