London airspace was restricted for several hours Friday due to computer failure, with the outage causing severe delays.
A problem at NATS' air traffic control centre at Swanwick on Friday afternoon caused the issue.
"NATS can confirm that a technical problem has been reported at Swanwick air traffic control centre," they said. "We apologise for any delays and our incident response team has been mobilised. Every possible action is being taken to assist in resolving the situation and to confirm the details."
Big news out of London. @eurocontrol Network Operations Portal reporting all London airspace closed until 1900 UTC due to computer failure— Jason Rabinowitz (@AirlineFlyer) December 12, 2014
A computer failure is affecting London airspace with potentially severe #flightdelay http://t.co/21rtiLnmr8— EUROCONTROL (@eurocontrol) December 12, 2014
Flights are currently experiencing delays due to a power outage at NATS control centre affecting UK airspace. Further updates to follow.— Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) December 12, 2014
With hundreds of flights taking off and landing from Heathrow alone, the closure of London airspace will lead to numerous diversions and delays.
All of these planes need to go somewhere, but at this rate, it won't be @HeathrowAirport. Diversions beginning. pic.twitter.com/8XVOwgm0bM— Jason Rabinowitz (@AirlineFlyer) December 12, 2014
NATS is the main provider of air traffic control services in the UK, handling 2.2 million flights and 220 million passengers in UK airspace.
There are no flights departing from London airports at the moment. pic.twitter.com/iXbZmt1AY6— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) December 12, 2014
UPDATE: 4:pm GMT NATS has confirmed that airspace is open but traffic volumes are restricted. Some flights are making it through.
Airspace is open. We're restricting traffic volumes in accordance with capability we currently have in our system.— NATS (@NATSPressOffice) December 12, 2014
Some flights are trickling into UK airspace and @HeathrowAirport right now. Others are holding, others are diverting. pic.twitter.com/SPzipcOvHH— Jason Rabinowitz (@AirlineFlyer) December 12, 2014
UPDATE: 4:28pm GMT NATS have confirmed their system is back online.
System has been restored and we are in the process of returning to normal operations. For more information please see http://t.co/2ToleaTUrH— NATS (@NATSPressOffice) December 12, 2014
Passengers have been tweeting their experiences.
Ffs the whole of the London airspace is shut until 7 my flight was meant to leave 5 hours ago— Katarina Jean (@kattycake) December 12, 2014
Stuck on the runway at Heathrow en route to Berlin... but we have beer! And it's Christmas! @BBCLondonNews #Heathrow pic.twitter.com/cES0EHPuCo— Phil Damerell (@Phil_Damerell) December 12, 2014
Parked up at Heathrow but have nowhere to go. Engines have been switched off to save fuel as we wait for si... https://t.co/bpYiQxixbP— Simon Peach (@SimonPeach) December 12, 2014
@HeathrowAirport runway queue as London Airspace closed earlier this evening due to ATC glitch @BBCNews @BBCBreaking pic.twitter.com/obnCAhaCum— Nicholas APEX (@NicholasAPEX) December 12, 2014
Gatwick Airport has advised anyone with flights booked to continue to the airport as normal.
Please travel to the airport as normal and contact your airline for the latest flight information.— Gatwick Airport LGW (@Gatwick_Airport) December 12, 2014