Travel disruption eases for UK passengers following US air traffic control problems
US airspace reopened on Friday evening after four hours, but US officials said recovery would be slow, with tens of thousands of passengers stranded and analysts expecting disruption to last for days.
Disruption to transatlantic travellers in the UK has eased after air traffic control problems brought flights to a standstill across the US.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) halted all flights nationwide on Friday “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety” following communications problems at regional air traffic control centres.
US airspace reopened on Friday evening after four hours, but US officials said recovery would be slow, with tens of thousands of passengers stranded and analysts expecting disruption to last for days.
Almost 10,000 flights were cancelled according to flight tracking website Flightradar24.
By Saturday morning the knock-on effect in the UK was limited to delays on some flights on US carriers.
Tim Johnson, consumer director at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: “While US flights have resumed, there may be some follow-on disruption as airlines work to re-book affected passengers and get all services back to normal.”
“Anyone due to travel on flights between the UK and USA should check with their airline for the latest information before heading to the airport.
“We know that UK airlines are doing all they can to minimise inconvenience and to make sure their customers are properly looked after.
British Airways said its flights were operating as normal having earlier apologised for possible delays and cancellations.
A spokesman said: “Whilst this matter was entirely outside of our control, we want to thank our customers for bearing with us, and our colleagues for supporting them and helping to minimise any disruption.”
Manchester Airport said there was not expected to be significant delays on Saturday and it is understood the situation had minimal impact on London Gatwick Airport.
Ireland’s Department of Transport advised all US-bound passengers to check with their airline for updates.
It is only the second time flights have been grounded across the US since the September 11 terror attacks in 2001.
Flights were halted by the FAA in January 2023 because of a system error.
US homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters at the White House that the introduction of some new technology into an old air traffic control system overwhelmed it.
Mr Mullin added “it doesn’t appear” that a cyber attack or rogue artificial intelligence played a role in the incident.
American transportation secretary Sean Duffy said he expected flights around the US to be “back up and operational as we come into the heat of travel” next weekend ahead of the American Thanksgiving holiday, but he also suggested more disruptions might occur.
“We didn’t think we would have this kind of outage. We did,” he said.
“We were able to review what went wrong, and then reboot the system and go. But, you will have more of these.”
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