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Full list of cancelled London flights as new air traffic control 'issue' causes disruption

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Cite

Place, T., & Howie, M. (2026, September 21). Full list of cancelled London flights as new air traffic control 'issue' causes disruption. Evening Standard. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/air-traffic-control-affected-flights-heathrow-gatwick-b1297741.html

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Evening Standard · collected 2026-09-21 · by Tom Place, Michael Howie

Quick Summary

A technical issue at an air traffic control center in Prestwick, Scotland, led to cancellations and delays for UK flights on Monday morning. National Air Traffic Services (NATS) reported disruptions mainly affecting flights between London and cities in northern England and Scotland. Ryanair estimated over 25,000 passengers would be impacted, while EasyJet criticized NATS' system resilience following a similar incident two weeks prior.
Written by AI on 2026-09-21, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

The UK's National Air Traffic Services (NATS) caused over 2,000 flight cancellations and widespread disruption across British airports on September 8, 2026, due to a millisecond software defect. The glitch affected hundreds of thousands of passengers and led to an estimated loss of millions for airlines as they refunded customers and rescheduled flights. This incident follows two previous major outages in the UK since summer 2023, increasing pressure on NATS CEO Martin Rolfe who faces calls to resign. Airlines like Ryanair are demanding action from regulators, while transport minister Heidi Alexander ordered an independent review by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to investigate the issue further.

Written for “Air Traffic Control Software Glitch Causes Chaos” on 2026-11-01, grounded in this article and the 23 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Air Traffic Control Software Glitch Causes Chaos
Technology · 24 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Evening Standard
Hedges 0 of 9 claims Outlet record 65/100
The Guardian
Hedges 1 of 20 claims Outlet record 66/100
Evening Standard
Hedges 1 of 14 claims Outlet record 65/100
The Straits Times
Hedges 0 of 13 claims Outlet record 66/100
“Article A discusses a software defect that caused widespread disruption with thousands of cancellations last week, while Article B reports on a technical issue causing dozens of cancellations and focusing specifically on flights to and from London and Scotland.”
Evening Standard
Hedges 0 of 24 claims Outlet record 65/100
Evening Standard
Hedges 0 of 28 claims Outlet record 65/100
Daily Mail
Hedges 0 of 24 claims Outlet record 68/100
Evening Standard
Hedges 2 of 18 claims Outlet record 65/100
Evening Standard
Hedges 2 of 31 claims Outlet record 65/100
“Article A describes a technical issue causing disruption to flights between London and northern regions, while Article B discusses a second incident within two weeks that affected Ryanair significantly.”
Evening Standard
Hedges 3 of 24 claims Outlet record 65/100
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
21
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 21 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
65/100
Evening Standard's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
24
Technology
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-21 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Evening Standard · 7995 article(s) · 66 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 66 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Tom Place
148 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Footage released by the force on Thursday showed vehicles reversing into the shop’s display windows and robbers rushing inside to grab as much goods as they could carry before fleeing.
🔮 The Labour leader responded, saying both Labour and the Conservative councillors could gauge concern through “many emails” and in-person conversations with Jewish residents and leaders of Jewish organisations. Cllr Rawlings also claimed that support for The Green Party policy essentially amounted to telling Jewish people to “disown their communities to participate in British politics”. Before the final vote, Barnet’s sole Green councillor Charli Thompson said there was “highly inaccurate” information in Cllr Rawlings’ claims, adding: “I would argue that we need to be voting on motions with accurate information in them – not falsehoods”.
🔮 “I couldn’t just go, ‘guys it’s me, vote for me, but that’s all I can do really’.
🔮 The Labour leader responded, saying both Labour and the Conservative councillors could gauge concern through “many emails” and in-person conversations with Jewish residents and leaders of Jewish organisations. Cllr Rawlings also claimed that support for The Green Party policy essentially amounted to telling Jewish people to “disown their communities to participate in British politics”. Before the final vote, Barnet’s sole Green councillor Charli Thompson said there was “highly inaccurate” information in Cllr Rawlings’ claims, adding: “I would argue that we need to be voting on motions with accurate information in them – not falsehoods”.
🔮 This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
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🔮 No friends would give evidence in his defence
🔮 Making the uplift in mileage rates permanent will make a real difference to public service workers.
🔮 The full impact of John Healey’s first Budget on London may only become clear in coming days.
2026-10-28 · mixed framing · Budget 2026: Biggest winners and losers in London
🔮 The first is that homes with a gross internal area of less than 130sqm will not be permitted to be converted into HMOs.
🔮 No arrests have yet been made, while the Met continue their enquiries. Detective Chief Inspector Wayne Jolley from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, who is leading the investigation, said: “We recognise the shock and concern this will have caused the community and my thoughts are with the victims’ loved ones at this difficult time.” He added: “I am keen to speak to anyone who was travelling in the area on Thursday night and might have any information or dashcam footage which could be relevant.” “Any information you have, no matter how small or insignificant you think it is, could prove vital to our investigation.
Also by Tom Place
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 148 articles by Tom Place →
Michael Howie
90 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Williams denies the attempted murder of 10 people on the train that had to make an emergency stop in Huntingdon on the evening of Saturday, 1 November last year. The defendant also denies trying to kill four other people in Peterborough and east London.
🔮 London rents set to rise as property taxes hiked in Budget Plans to increase taxes for landlords risk a “steady rise” in rent prices, the UK’s official Budget watchdog has warned.
🔮 Business rates cut The move would mean thousands of high-street shops, cafes, pubs and other small businesses would no longer have to pay business rates.
🔮 Emergency services will have access to the street at all times.
🔮 Successive London administrations have considered ways of reducing traffic and improving the public realm on the street, while London Mayor Sadiq Khan first proposed pedestrianising it as part of his 2016 mayoral programme.
🔮 Under the plans, the state pension could still rise by more than inflation or 2.5% in some years, to keep its value relative to average worker earnings.
🔮 Mumbai will stage the Earthshot Prize next month where the future king will meet Bollywood stars as he learns about India’s hugely popular film industry, play with cricketing royalty and preside over the ceremony awarding £5 million in prize money.
🔮 “Those results send a clear message: if you profit from retail crime, you will be arrested.
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🔮 Firefighters will remain at the scene for the next few hours to dampen down the area.
Also by Michael Howie
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 90 articles by Michael Howie →

Topics

British Airways London Heathrow NATS Prestwick Scotland

Subjects

British Airways ORG · 7× NATS ORG · 6× London City ORG · 4× London Heathrow GPE · 4× Scotland GPE · 4× EasyJet ORG · 3× London GPE · 3× Prestwick GPE · 3× England GPE · 2× Newcastle ORG · 2×

Narrative

Heathrow 2.15pm - London Heathrow to Newcastle - British Airways - Cancelled 3.20pm - London Heathrow to Glasgow - British Airways - Cancelled 4.05pm - London Heathrow to Aberdeen - British Airways - Cancelled 2.55pm - Glasgow to London Heathrow - British Airways - Cancelled 5.35pm - Newcastle to London Heathrow - British Airways - Cancelled 8.00pm - Aberdeen to London Heathrow - British Airways - Cancelled Stansted 11.20am - Edinburgh to London Stansted - easyJet - Cancelled 11.50am - London Stansted to Edinburgh - easyJet - Cancelled London City 12.10pm - Edinburgh to London City - British Airways - Cancelled 6.15pm - Isle of Man to London City - Loganair - Cancelled 6.45pm - London City to Isle of Man - Loganair - Cancelled
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-21
🔮 Ryanair has said more than 25,000 of its passengers are expected to be disrupted.

Claims (21 extracted, 0 hedged)

Dozens of UK flights have been cancelled because of a “technical issue” at an air traffic control centre. asserted
Dozens → cancel → centre
National Air Traffic Services (NATS) announced on Monday morning that a “technical issue” at its centre in Prestwick, Scotland, was causing disruption. asserted
issue → announce → disruption
A number of flights between London and cities in Scotland and northern England have been cancelled. asserted
number → cancel → Scotland
A spokesman said: “Our engineers are continuing to investigate the issue at our Prestwick centre in Scotland. “Airports south of Manchester are broadly unaffected, however flights heading north and flights departing Scottish airports are currently subject to some delay. asserted
flights → say → delay
“Passengers should check with their airlines. asserted
Passengers → check → airlines
We apologise for the disruption.” asserted
We → apologise → disruption
In an update shortly before 11am, NATS said the issue had been fixed. asserted
issue → say → 11
It said: “We are working with airports and airlines to safely lift air traffic regulations as quickly as we can to minimise any further disruption. “Passengers should still check the status of their flight with their airline. asserted
Passengers → say → airline
“We apologise for the disruption.” asserted
We → apologise → disruption
Heathrow was the worst-affected airport, with disruption taking days to resolve because of the number of planes and crew left out of place. asserted
disruption → affect → place
The latest failure has caused a number of flights between London and Scotland and the north of England to be cancelled or delayed. asserted
number → cause → England
Ryanair has said more than 25,000 of its passengers are expected to be disrupted. asserted
25,000 → say → passengers
EasyJet has said the latest flight disruption “calls into question the resilience of NATS’ systems” after two air traffic control problems within one month. asserted
disruption → say → month
The airline said in a statement: “A NATS air traffic control system failure in its Prestwick centre is causing delays to flights with some unable to operate. asserted
failure → say → some
“This, once again, calls into question the resilience of NATS’ systems and demonstrates the need for firm actions to prevent these repeated failures. asserted
This → call → failures
“We will do all we can minimise the impact of this for our customers and advise anyone due to fly today to check our flight tracker for the latest information.” asserted
we → do → information
Luton Airport said domestic flights had been disrupted by the air traffic control issue. asserted
flights → say → issue
A statement said: “The air traffic control system operated by NATS at its Prestwick centre is experiencing a technical issue which is impacting flights across the UK including a number of domestic flights to/from London Luton Airport. asserted
which → say → Airport
“Passengers are advised to check with their airline before travelling to the airport. asserted
Passengers → advise → airport
We will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.” asserted
information → continue → updates
Heathrow 2.15pm - London Heathrow to Newcastle - British Airways - Cancelled 3.20pm - London Heathrow to Glasgow - British Airways - Cancelled 4.05pm - London Heathrow to Aberdeen - British Airways - Cancelled 2.55pm - Glasgow to London Heathrow - British Airways - Cancelled 5.35pm - Newcastle to London Heathrow - British Airways - Cancelled 8.00pm - Aberdeen to London Heathrow - British Airways - Cancelled Stansted 11.20am - Edinburgh to London Stansted - easyJet - Cancelled 11.50am - London Stansted to Edinburgh - easyJet - Cancelled London City 12.10pm - Edinburgh to London City - British Airways - Cancelled 6.15pm - Isle of Man to London City - Loganair - Cancelled 6.45pm - London City to Isle of Man - Loganair - Cancelled asserted
Loganair → cancel → Man
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