UK technical glitch disrupts flights from Greece, Israel, Portugal, Spain

Passengers for flights headed to UK or whose flight crossed UK space faced cancellations or delays of several hours Monday due to what Britain’s National Air Traffic Service (NATS) said was a technical issue that it had identified and remedied by late afternoon Monday.

Holidaymakers returning from Greece, Israel, Portugal, Spain and elsewhere took to social media to say they were stuck on planes on the tarmac waiting to take off, or held in airport buildings on what is a traditionally busy travel day as the school holidays draw to a close.

Earlier in the day, NATS had had to restrict the flow of aircraft and manually input flight plans after the issue affected its system’s ability to automatically process flight plans. [Reuters]