UK flights cancelled: NATS air traffic control failure of 8-9 September 2026 — can passengers claim compensation?

A technical fault at the UK's air traffic control provider, NATS, triggered one of the largest disruptions to British aviation in years on 8 and 9 September 2026, cancelling close to 1,000 flights and leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded or delayed at airports across the country.

Key facts

• A technical fault in NATS' (the UK's air traffic control provider) flight data processing system began around lunchtime on Tuesday 8 September 2026.
• Close to 1,000 flights were cancelled on 8 September, with a further wave of cancellations on 9 September caused by the resulting backlog.
• Worst-affected airports: Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham. Around 15 UK airports were affected in total.
• EasyJet cancelled around 200 flights, British Airways cancelled or diverted more than 100, and Ryanair reported over 65,000 passengers delayed by up to eight hours.
• The Transport Secretary confirmed a cyber attack was not the cause; NATS says the technical issue has been resolved.
• This specific disruption is classed as an "extraordinary circumstance" under UK261/EU261 rules, meaning airlines are unlikely to owe cash compensation for it — but they still owe duty-of-care support (meals, hotels, rebooking).
• Flight-Delayed.com can still check whether you're owed compensation for other cancelled or delayed flights, including flights from up to 6 years ago.
• Flight Delayed Premium members get airport lounge access during future disruptions, and more.

What happened at UK airports on 8 September

The trouble began around lunchtime on Tuesday 8 September, when a fault in NATS' flight data processing system forced controllers to drastically cut the number of aircraft allowed to take off and land. With departures paused and landings restricted, the disruption cascaded across the network throughout the afternoon and into the evening.

As many as 1,000 flights were cancelled as a direct result of the glitch. The fault affected air traffic control at roughly 15 UK airports, with the worst disruption concentrated at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham.

Heathrow, one of the busiest airports in Europe, paused departures around midday before traffic briefly resumed, only to be disrupted again in the afternoon. The airport eventually ran out of space for incoming aircraft because so few planes had been able to depart, and 13 Heathrow-bound flights had to be diverted to other airports in the UK and Europe.

Airlines bore the brunt of the cancellations. EasyJet cancelled around 200 flights, British Airways cancelled or diverted more than 100, and Ryanair said more than 65,000 of its passengers had faced delays of up to eight hours.

The disruption wasn't confined to the UK. Airports in Ireland reported knock-on problems, and flights between mainland Europe and the UK were held on the ground or delayed for hours, creating a ripple effect across several European hubs.

Why were flights still being cancelled on 9 September?

NATS said the technical fault itself was identified and resolved by late Tuesday afternoon, but fixing the system didn't undo the backlog it created. Aircraft and crews were left out of position overnight, and that meant a fresh wave of cancellations on Wednesday morning, largely affecting flights scheduled to depart from or arrive at Heathrow early in the day.

By 6am on 9 September, Heathrow alone had already logged 246 cancelled flights, with Gatwick reporting 33 more. Cancellations also hit early departures from Manchester and Glasgow. Travel journalist Simon Calder described the day's knock-on effects as inevitable, since so many aircraft simply never made it to their overnight positions the night before.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander summoned NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe to a meeting on Wednesday to explain what went wrong and how the response was handled. She also moved to rule out one theory doing the rounds — telling MPs that a cyber attack was not the cause of the fault — and urged affected passengers to keep checking directly with their airlines, warning that a full return to normal schedules would take time.

Is NATS to blame again? A history of air traffic control failures

This is not the first time a NATS system failure has caused chaos in UK skies. In August 2023, a bank holiday weekend computer shutdown disrupted travel for roughly 700,000 passengers, partly because the engineer needed to fix it from the office couldn't get there quickly. NATS has said this week's fault was in a different part of its systems, but the repeat failure has reignited pressure on the organisation.

Ryanair and Wizz Air have both called for an overhaul of NATS, with Wizz Air arguing the current system isn't fit for purpose. When asked whether he was considering resigning, Rolfe said there would be time for that conversation later, and that his immediate focus was fixing the problem. He has since apologised and confirmed a full investigation into the failure is underway.

Why this specific disruption is an "extraordinary circumstance" — and what that means for compensation

Under UK261 and EU261 rules, passengers whose flights are cancelled or significantly delayed can be entitled to compensation of up to £520 / €600, depending on the flight distance. But airlines don't owe that compensation when the cancellation is caused by "extraordinary circumstances" genuinely outside their control.

A nationwide air traffic control system failure like this one is a textbook example of an extraordinary circumstance. It wasn't caused by the airline, wasn't a crewing or maintenance issue, and wasn't something any single carrier could have prevented — the fault sat with NATS' infrastructure, not with the airlines operating the flights. That means passengers cancelled or delayed specifically because of the NATS fault on 8-9 September are unlikely to be able to claim fixed cash compensation from their airline for this event.

That said, airlines still owe you duty of care regardless of the cause: rebooking onto an alternative flight (with another airline if needed), reasonable meals and refreshments while you wait, and hotel accommodation and transport if you're stranded overnight. If your airline didn't provide this, you may still have a claim for reimbursement of costs you covered yourself.

We can still help — even if this event isn't compensable

Not every disruption is extraordinary circumstances, and airlines often get it wrong or use the label too broadly. If you've had a flight cancelled or delayed at any point in the last six years — for this event or any other reason — it's worth having it checked properly rather than assuming nothing can be done. We regularly find compensation passengers didn't know they were owed, sometimes years after the flight.

We work on a no win, no fee basis, so there's nothing to lose by finding out where you stand.

Next time, let Flight Delayed Premium handle it

Disruptions like this one are becoming more frequent, not less. Flight Delayed Premium gets you:

• Lounge access at 1,500+ airports worldwide, for delays of 1 hour or more, or cancellations announced less than 6 hours before departure — so next time NATS goes down, you're relaxing in a lounge instead of camping out on the terminal floor.
• No fees on your first three successful EU261 compensation claims, as long as the flight is added to your Premium account at least 48 hours before scheduled departure.
• Priority support from the Flight Delayed team for Premium members.

What to do if your flight was affected

• Don't head to the airport if your airline has already told you your flight is cancelled.
• Contact your airline directly to confirm your options for rebooking or a refund — call centres have been extremely busy, so online chat or the app may be faster.
• Keep every receipt for meals, hotels, and transport you had to pay for yourself, in case you're entitled to reimbursement.
• Even though this specific event is an extraordinary circumstance, check your rights anyway — duty-of-care obligations still apply, and other flights you've had disrupted in the past may still qualify for compensation.

This news article has been written with the assistance of AI, however, it has been fact-checked and edited by a member of our team of air passenger rights experts before publication.