All departing flights out of two of London’s largest airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, were briefly grounded on Wednesday afternoon, according to representatives for the airports.
A spokeswoman for Gatwick Airport said the disruption was because of a technical issue with its radar. Inbound flights were still landing, but outbound flights were grounded.
NATS, a company that provides most air traffic control services for the United Kingdom, said in a statement on social media that “a technical issue” at its air traffic control system had forced it to limit the number of aircraft flying in the London area.
“Our engineers are working hard to resolve the problem as quickly as possible and we are working closely with airlines to help minimize disruption,” the statement said. “At this stage we cannot say how long it will be before operations are back to normal.”
By 4:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. Eastern), the company posted again on social media that the problem had been fixed.
“Our engineers have now restored the system that was affected this afternoon,” the company wrote. “We are in the process of resuming normal operations in the London area.”
The impact of the outage, however, had already begun rippling through the system.
At Heathrow, the largest airport in Britain and one of the world’s busiest travel hubs, the cause of the disruption was not immediately clear, said a spokesman for the airport. The grounding of flights on Wednesday comes four months after a fire at a power substation shut down the airport for around 16 hours, disrupting travel for thousands worldwide.
But the problem appeared widespread enough to be affecting all of the airports in the London area. Officials at London City Airport said in a post that flights into and out of the area were being affected.
“Due to a technical issue with air traffic control across the London area, flights in and out of London airports — including London City Airport — might be delayed or subject to cancellation,” the statement said.
It urged travelers to check on the status of their flights before heading to the airport.
The issue comes at the height of the summer travel and vacation season, when many passengers from all over the world travel to London. Heathrow is also one of the largest and most important hubs for European travel, and delays often ripple across the continent quickly.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
