Belfast flights disrupted after fresh UK air traffic control failure

September 21, 2026 The Belfast Desk

Passengers travelling through Belfast’s two airports are facing cancellations and delays today after a fresh technical failure at the UK’s air traffic control provider caused widespread disruption.

EasyJet aircraft at Belfast International Airport — Belfast International Airport. Photo credit: Thomas Nugent / Geograph / CC BY-SA 2.0

Flights at both Belfast International Airport and George Best Belfast City Airport have been affected by the problem, which occurred at National Air Traffic Services’ (NATS) control centre in Prestwick, Scotland.

The technical issue has now been fixed, but passengers have been warned that delays and disruption could continue as airlines and airports work to restore normal schedules.

Northern Ireland’s airports have been among those worst affected by the disruption, with four flights cancelled at Belfast International and four at Belfast City this morning.

Passengers urged to check before travelling

Belfast International Airport advised passengers to check directly with their airline for the latest information before making their way to the terminal.

The airport said passengers without confirmation that their flight is operating should not travel to the airport.

Belfast City Airport also warned of disruption to arriving and departing services and advised passengers to check their flight status before travelling.

City of Derry Airport has also been affected, with cancellations and delays reported there.

The disruption has affected airports across Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.

Technical problem at Prestwick

NATS said the problem developed at its Prestwick control centre on Monday morning.

Air traffic restrictions were introduced while engineers investigated the fault in order to safely manage the number of aircraft using the affected airspace.

The problem was subsequently resolved and restrictions began to be lifted, although passengers were warned that knock-on delays could continue.

NATS apologised for the disruption and said it was working with airports and airlines to return operations to normal as quickly as possible.

UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander also confirmed that engineers had fixed the problem and systems were resuming, although she warned that some delays could remain while operations recovered.

Second NATS disruption in less than two weeks

Today’s incident comes less than two weeks after a separate major failure of the UK’s air traffic control system caused widespread disruption.

More than 2,000 flights were cancelled following the 8 September incident, affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers.

NATS published preliminary findings into that failure on Friday, identifying a software defect in a small part of the National Airspace System.

However, NATS has stressed that today’s problem at Prestwick is unrelated to the 8 September failure.

The latest disruption has nevertheless prompted renewed criticism from airlines over the resilience of the UK’s air traffic control infrastructure.

Airlines demand action

EasyJet, which operates a significant number of services from Belfast International, said the latest failure raised further questions over the resilience of NATS systems.

The airline said some flights had been unable to operate as a result of the failure and called for firm action to prevent repeated disruption.

Ryanair has also strongly criticised NATS following the latest incident, saying more than 25,000 of its passengers were expected to be affected across its network.

The airline renewed calls for NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign.

British Airways has also warned passengers that services could be affected.

Passengers travelling from Belfast today are being advised to continue checking directly with their airline for the latest information, even if their flight is currently showing as scheduled.