Passengers Experience Second Day of UK Flight Disruption, Leading to Travel Chaos and Frustration

Thousands of travellers continue to face disruption to their flights the day after a “network-wide failure” hit the UK air traffic control system.

Heathrow airport has warned passengers on Tuesday of “continuing disruption on some routes, including flight cancellations.”

This comes after hundreds of flights got cancelled and delayed on Monday due to a technical issue that struck the UK air traffic control system, causing travel chaos on one of the busiest days of the year.

The National Air Traffic Services (NATS) has now fixed the technical issue and is working with airlines and airports to “manage the flights affected as efficiently as possible.”

Transport secretary Mark Harper said that while the air traffic control issue has been resolved, flights are “still unfortunately affected.”

UK resident Dimitra Raikou and her family saw their easyJet flight from Kos to London cancelled early Tuesday morning, after a number of delays. She has been stranded with her family in Greece, trying to find the next available direct flight, which the booking system said was Sept. 7.

“We feel very frustrated. The airline was so overwhelmed with calls from other passengers, it was impossible to get any information.”

The knock-on impact from Monday’s outage means that holidaymakers and families planning to return to the UK before the start of the school year, will remain stranded abroad until the backlog in the system clears out.

Ms. Raikou had to change her destination from London to Bristol and will be flying on Sept. 3 to avoid missing more work days.

The outage on the August bank holiday affected around one million people, with 3,049 flights due to depart and another 3,054 scheduled to arrive.

Aviation analytics firm Cirium reported that on Tuesday five percent of all departures and five percent of all arrivals got cancelled, with numbers continuously changing as the day progresses.

Mr. Harper advised passengers to seek information on their rights in case their flight gets delayed or cancelled. The UK Civil Aviation Authority said that airlines have a duty to take care of affected passengers, including providing them with food and drink, providing accommodation if the flight gets delayed overnight, a refund, and alternative travel arrangements.

Ms. Raikou said that many passengers had to sleep in the airport because local hotels were fully booked.

Travellers won’t be entitled to any



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