Lisbon, Sept. 9, 2026 (Lusa) - A technical fault affecting the British air traffic control system led to the cancellation of nine flights between London and Portuguese airports on Wednesday, out of at least 250 flights affected across the UK.

At 9:30 a.m. (continental time), the ANA-Aeroportos de Portugal website showed that nine flights to London from Lisbon and Faro airports had been cancelled.

At that time, Porto airport maintained its full schedule of flights to London.

A technical fault in the air traffic control operator NATS's processing system caused the cancellations.

Operators detected the fault on Tuesday, leading them to cancel around 1,300 flights at major British airports; technicians subsequently repaired it, but it is now experiencing problems again.

The latest data from the FlightRadar24 monitoring portal indicates that, by early this morning, Heathrow, the country's largest airport and Europe's busiest, had seen 246 flights cancelled, with several dozen more cancelled at Gatwick; this figure is expected to rise throughout the day.

At Heathrow, in west London, disruption is continuing today as airlines reallocate aircraft and crews; the airport has therefore asked passengers to go to the terminals only if their flights have been confirmed.

Gatwick Airport, south of London, has warned that a full return to normal operations «will take time» and has advised passengers to contact their airlines.

The Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, a Labour Party member, has summoned NATS CEO Martin Wolfe to a meeting.

Wolfe apologised for the disruption, which affected tens of thousands of passengers, and said an investigation is underway.

NATS, the British air traffic control operator, is 49% state-owned and provides services at 15 airports across the UK, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

PYR/ADB // ADB.

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