Flights resume after technical glitch, but cancellations continue to affect Heathrow

Flights from major airports around the UK resumed today after a technical glitch caused travel misery yesterday.

Stansted Airport said it was “business as usual” for departures today - but a Heathrow spokesman said flights were still being hit by cancellations.

Thousands of airline passengers were affected when flights from airports across the UK were cancelled or delayed yesterday after problems with a telephone system at the National Air Traffic Service (Nats) centre in Hampshire.

They endured hours of frustration as flights were affected across the country, including the major airports of Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick. The problem was resolved at about 7.30pm yesterday, Nats said, more than 12 hours after first being reported.

It was feared there could be knock-on effects but other than a handful of cancellations at Heathrow, there were no further problems.

The issue arose when Nats' night-time operating system, which combines sectors of airspace for when it is less busy, did not properly switch over to the daytime system, causing a communication problem with the centre's internal telephones. They stressed that safety was not at risk at any time.

Heathrow was the worst affected, with 228 cancellations yesterday, representing 15% of its usual daily total of 1,300 flights going in and out of the airport.

A spokeswoman for Heathrow Airport said: "Today we have 18 cancellations - 11 arrivals and seven departures - and that's mostly due to crew displacement.

"Apart from that we are pretty much running as normal."

She explained crew displacement is when crew are not where they are meant to be, due to yesterday's cancelled and delayed flights.

A Stansted Airport spokesman said they had experienced no problems today, while a Gatwick Airport spokeswoman said: "We've been back to business as usual from this morning."