Update as over 1,000 flights cancelled across all major UK airports causing 'absolute carnage'
The National Air Traffic Service has some promising news for travellers affected by this week's 'technical issues'.
Rumblings of furious passengers across various UK airports emerged yesterday (8 September), with more than 1,000 flights thrown into chaos by what was being described as a systematic headache.
Manchester, Birmingham, Belfast City, Aberdeen, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Glasgow, as well as London's Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and London City airports were all impacted, leaving tens of thousands of holidaymakers twiddling their thumbs and waiting for answers.
Posting images of crowded departure lounges on social media, they complained of 'absolute carnage' as their dreams of late-summer sunshine slowly faded.
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"Accept technical fault beyond British Airways control but the lack of comms and information is shocking," wrote one person, while a second fumed: "As usual Heathrow totally unprepared for anything."
Per The Sun, though, a new announcement made by the NATS should calm a few nerves.
"Recovery from today's system issue has taken longer than we had hoped," it began.
"Our system issue is now resolved, we are operating normally and working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights."
At least the end is near for these infuriating delays, then.
It comes after monitoring service Flightradar estimated that four per cent of total UK air traffic had been bruised by technical problems.
British Airways went on to share in a statement of its own: "We were forced to cancel or divert more than 100 flights on Tuesday afternoon. We're doing everything we can to keep our customers updated and make arrangements for them to continue their journeys.
"We ask customers whose flights have been cancelled not to travel to the airport and to bear with us if they're trying to get in touch, as our call centres are incredibly busy at the moment."
Somehow, people flying in and out of Liverpool John Lennon and Nottingham East Midlands airport managed to avoid the mess, while London City Airport was forced to terminate 60 per cent of its scheduled journeys.
Speaking to The Sun Travel, a woman from Manchester named Sarah revealed how flyers waiting at Lisbon Airport had been left 'confused and upset' by the whole thing.
"We arrived at the correct time for our 4.30pm flight to Heathrow but were then told our flight was four hours delayed," she said.
"The queues are backing up at the BA check in desks with confused and upset people and crying babies."
Let's hope this fully resolves itself in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Topics: Travel, Technology, Holiday
Dan Seddon