Flights across the country have been grounded amid air traffic control issues

Flights have been grounded at Glasgow Airport after a ‘technical issue’ at air traffic control caused widespread travel chaos.

A National Air Traffic Services spokesperson said that a technical issue at their Prestwick centre was being investigated and that engineers are onsite working to resolve the issue.

Passengers at Glasgow Airport faced long delays on Monday. | The Scotsman

placeholder image — Passengers at Glasgow Airport faced long delays on Monday. | The Scotsman

A NATS spokesperson said: "We are investigating a technical issue at our Prestwick centre in Scotland.

“To maintain safety, air traffic regulations have been applied to manage traffic demand.

“Engineers are on site investigating and working to resolve the issue. The issue is unrelated to the technical problems experienced earlier this month.

“We apologise for the disruption and any delays to passengers’ journeys. Passengers should check with their airline for the latest information on their flight."

It is the second incident involving the Nats in recent weeks. Around 2000 flights were cancelled after an issue two weeks ago.

Martin Rolfe, Chief Executive Officer, confirmed that this incident was unrelated to the major system outage in August 2023. He also dismissed speculation that it was caused by military intervention.

“This was a software issue in a specific part of our flight data system, that we have traced to a small subsection of coding,” he said. “The issue has been identified and mitigation is in place while a permanent fix is safety tested and deployed.”

The preliminary report stated that two messages had been sent to the system at the same causing the issue.