London airport suffers further flight disruptions

A third day of air travel disruption has been reported after a mix of staff shortages at UK air traffic control (ATC) provider NATS and bad weather began to impact operations on Sunday.

Flight data from Flightradar24 reported that 95% of the first 100 flights scheduled to depart on Tuesday were delayed. According to the company, the average delay time was 40 minutes.

“This is the latest in a long line of cock-ups by UK NATS, which has yet again disrupted multiple flights and thousands of passengers at Gatwick,” Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary said.

At least 16,000 travellers were initially impacted by Sunday’s disruption after 100 flights were cancelled.

A further 11 outbound Gatwick flights were cancelled on Monday while inbound flights are also understood to have been grounded, according to the airport.

Those most affected by cancellations are easyJet customers, with two-thirds of the flights cancelled being between Gatwick and Naples, Montpellier, Jersey, and Edinburgh.

At the same time, British Airways flights to Amsterdam, Glasgow, Las Vegas, Ibiza, and Nice were also cancelled, according to Gatwick’s website.

An easyJet spokesperson said it was “doing all possible” to minimise the impact.

New AirHelp data reveals UK passengers’ travel disruption in Q1 with London Gatwick ranking as one of the most unpunctual airports.