UK airport disarray as Prestwick air traffic center suffers ‘technical issue’

The National Air Traffic Services (NATS) center in Prestwick, Scotland, has been struck by a “technical issue” resulting in flight disruptions at some UK airports.

On September 21, 2026, NATS said that flights “south of Manchester are broadly unaffected however flights heading north and flights departing Scottish airports are currently subject to some delay”.

Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LPL) Manchester Airport (MAN), Belfast International Airport (BFS), Edinburgh Airport (EDI) and Glasgow Prestwick Airport (GLA) are all reporting delays to operations.

Flights travelling to airports affected by the issue from non-affected airports are also facing possible disruptions.

“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 now subject to some delay,” Nats said. “Passengers should check with their airlines. This is unrelated to the issue two weeks ago. We apologise for the disruption.”

Passengers flying with British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair are all expected to face delays and disruptions.

In a statement Ryanair said: “We have been advised of a NATS Air Traffic Control equipment failure today affecting the airspace above Scotland/Northern England. As a result, we expect some delays to flights to/from the UK and Ireland.”

At around 10:30, local time, the Secretary of State for Transport, Heidi Alexander, said “engineers have fixed the problem and systems are resuming”.

“I know this will be deeply frustrating for passengers after the previous issue,” she added. “There may be some delays as things reset.”

A NATS software failure earlier this month in the UK caused more than 2,000 flight cancellations.

September 21, 2026, 11:12 (UTC +3)
NATS confirms ‘issue now fixed’

NATS has confirmed that the issue affecting airports and scheduled flights has been fixed.

NATS said: “Early this morning (Monday 21 September) we experienced a technical issue at our Prestwick centre in Scotland. To maintain safety, air traffic regulations were applied to manage traffic demand while our engineers investigated.”

“The issue has now been fixed and we are working closely with airports and airlines to safely remove the remaining air traffic restrictions as quickly as possible to minimise any further disruption.”

“This was a connectivity issue with part of our systems network, specific to the operation in Scotland. It is nothing to do with the problem we had earlier this month.”

“We apologise to passengers for the disruption and thank them for their patience. Passengers should continue to check with their airline for the latest information on their flight.”

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