Passengers hit by UK flight chaos are owed four things by airlines despite no compensation threat

Travellers hit by yet more flight chaos in the UK may miss out on compensation, but are urged to check what they could still be entitled to.

Flights were delayed in Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England amid another air traffic control (ATC) issue on Monday (21 September), National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said.

The company said the issue was unrelated to a software fault earlier this month, which caused more than 2,000 flights to be cancelled, wreaking havoc for hundreds of thousands of passengers.

Some 227 flights scheduled to depart or arrive at airports in the UK were cancelled on Monday.

Although NATS said the issue has been fixed, the repercussions continued throughout the day. Manchester, Belfast International, Edinburgh and George Best Belfast City airports faced the most disruption.

Passengers were left stuck at airports (Henry NICHOLLS / AFP via Getty Images)

“We are working with airports and airlines to safely lift air traffic regulations as quickly as we can to minimize any further disruption,” the agency said in a statement. “We apologise for the disruption.”

Ryanair stated that over 25,000 of its passengers were expected to face disruption as a result of the latest issue, repeating calls for NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign.

EasyJet meanwhile said the latest flight disruption 'once again, calls into question the resilience of NATS’ systems.

And British Airways called the disruption 'disappointing', adding that that some customers may experience disruption after 'yet another technical fault'.

For those affected, flights from the UK and EU airports are subject to European rules regarding refunds.

Passengers are unlikely to get the standard delay compensation due to the issue being out of airline's control.

Passengers at Gatwick during chaos earlier this month (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

What could passengers be entitled to?

For delays and cancellations typically, passengers can be entitled to hundreds in compensation – provided the delay was provably the airline's fault.

Tens of thousands of passengers who suffered the travel mayhem earlier in September have already been told by the Civil Aviation Authority that they were unlikely to get any compensation. Similar rules will now likely apply following the most recent incident.

Thousands were impacted (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

A UK Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson said previously: “We have reminded airlines of their responsibilities to look after passengers whose flights have been delayed or cancelled.

"We consider that disruption caused by the NATS outage is likely to be considered the result of ‘extraordinary circumstances’ under passenger rights rules.

"This means that although passengers should be looked after by airlines, they are unlikely to be entitled to compensation for delays or cancellations that were directly caused by the incident.”

However, hit passengers could still be owed meals and refreshments, hotel accommodation and transfers, a refund or reroute and reimbursement for reasonable costs incurred.

A cancellation or a long delay can trigger the obligation for an airline to provide support where appropriate, even if they are not to blame.

Heathrow was among those hit by cancellations (Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Passengers whose flights are departing from the UK or the EU are entitled to be flown to their destination as close to the original schedule as possible, on any airline with seats available.

They should be provided with meals and hotels if there is a 'significant delay', which applies irrespective of the cause of the delay.

For short flights, refreshments are usually due after two hours, three hours for mid-haul journeys, and four hours for long-haul trips.

If the delay extends overnight, the airline is obliged to find and pay for a hotel room. In practice passengers are often invited to book their own and reclaim later.