Airlines are demanding “firm actions” to improve air traffic control “resilience” after a second technical issue in less than two weeks caused further disruption to flights.
National Air Traffic Services (Nats), which provides ATC for 15 UK airports, said engineers had been called to deal with an issue at its Prestwick centre, which looks after Scotland and the north of England.
Nats has since reported that the issue has been fixed, and that the service is working with airlines and airports to safely remove the remaining air traffic restrictions.
But dozens of flights have been cancelled across Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England.
Flights disrupted across north of UK – what you need to know

Flights across the UK – particularly Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England – are facing disruption due to a “technical issue” with air traffic control.
Here is everything you need to know – including the airports affected.
What caused the problem?
Nats, which runs air traffic control, has said the issue at its Prestwick centre in Ayrshire is “now fixed”, and that it is working to “safely lift air traffic regulations as quickly as we can”. It said the glitch was a “connectivity issue with part of our systems network”.


Second failure in two weeks
This is the second failure at Nats in less than a fortnight.
But it said this most recent disruption has “nothing to do” with the software defect that led to the cancellation of 2,000 flights across the UK earlier this month.


EasyJet said this “once again calls into questions the resilience of Nats’ systems”.
Airports report disruption
Airports across the UK have reported varying degrees of disruption. They include:
- and – Arrivals and departures.
- – Issue causing some delays.
- – Experiencing “some delays”.
- – Urging passengers to contact their airline.
- – Experiencing some delays and cancellations similar to other airports.
- – Experiencing “some disruption” and “working closely” with Nats to resolve the issue.
- – Warns that there “will be disruption” to both arrivals and departures.
Cindy Crawford’s son Presley Gerber dies in rehab aged 27

Presley Gerber, the son of supermodel Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber, has died at the age of 27.
The former model died on Sunday at a rehab facility, according to the Los Angeles county medical examiner. The cause of death has not been disclosed.
A closer look at the detail
Gerber, who was the eldest child of the celebrity couple, and brother of model Kaia Gerber, had spoken openly about his mental health and drug use in recent years.
His sister mentioned his “decade-long struggle with drug addiction” in the September 2026 issue of .
Mental health struggles
Having struggled with mental health, depression and some other things that come along with that, I think that whether I help one person or a hundred people get out of that place that I was in at one point in my life, that’s all I need to do.
Speaking to podcast in 2023, Gerber hoped that sharing his story would help others suffering with mental health issues.

Life in the limelight
- Gerber had been a model like his mother and younger sister Kaia, making his runway debut for Italian label Moschino aged just 16.
- He went on to model for brands including Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana, and Bottega Veneta.
- Gerber posted a video about undergoing drug withdrawal treatment in the months before his death, though the cause of his death was not disclosed.
Badenoch pledges to bring back tax-free shopping for tourists

Kemi Badenoch has promised to revive a tax-free shopping scheme for tourists by reversing a post-Brexit rule change.
The decision to scrap the VAT refund scheme for international visitors in 2021 left the UK “less competitive” than many other European holiday destinations as the country left the EU, the Tories said.
Business chiefs hail ‘pro-growth’ policy change
Badenoch said the policy was letting down businesses.
Business chiefs, including the bosses of Fortnum & Mason and Paul Smith, hailed the policy change as “pro-growth” and “pro-jobs”.


Losing out to ‘rival cities’
We have iconic retailers, inventive designers and brilliant manufacturers, but they are being let down by a tax policy that is chasing their customers away. Holidaymakers are choosing rival cities in other countries for the simple reason that it saves them money.
Kemi badenoch, lEADER OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY

Treasury: ‘UK visitors can claim VAT’
Almost every European country offers tax-free shopping for tourists, except the UK – although the minimum spend varies.
A Treasury spokesperson said “visitors can still claim VAT relief where the items purchased are shipped directly to their home country as exports” and that it is working to “welcome 50 million international visitors a year to the UK by 2030”.


All the latest Earl Spencer revelations as royal row continues
A war of words has broken out after Earl Spencer made a series of damning claims about the King in a new memoir about his sister, Diana, Princess of Wales.
Swan Song: Diana, My Sister is due to be published on Tuesday. Here are some key claims made in excerpts from the book released so far.
‘We’ll forget her soon enough’
Spencer claims he and Charles argued over arrangements for his sister’s funeral in 1997 and the King told him: “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough”.


Spencer has also said he believes the relationship between the press and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “echoes” the way the media treated his sister.
Other key claims made
- Spencer has written of how Charles’s phone call following the car crash in 1997 “sounded strangely matter-of-fact”.
- “[Charles] sounded giddily elated – like a lottery winner, I remember thinking at the time,” Spencer writes.
- In another extract, Spencer told of his memories of the funeral, and his concern for Harry, after he observed a “lack of obvious care”.
While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.
Buckingham Palace spokesman

King accused of gaslighting
Spencer has accused the King of gaslighting him and called his response a “rather poor imitation of the ‘recollections may vary’ quote” – the late Queen’s response to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s allegations in their Oprah Winfrey interview, The Mail on Sunday reports.
Watch more from The i Paper
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said in a social media post that engineers had “fixed the problem and systems are resuming”, but warned some delays may continue during the reset.
A Nats spokesperson said: “This was a connectivity issue with part of our systems network, specific to the operation in Scotland. It is nothing to do with the problem we had earlier this month.”
A software fault at Nats on September 8 caused more than 2,000 flights to be cancelled.
Which airports are affected?
Delays have been reported at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Dundee, Benbecula and Belfast airports.
A Nats spokesperson said: “Airports south of Manchester are broadly unaffected, however, flights heading north and flights departing Scottish airports are currently subject to some delay.”
However, London City airport posted on its social media page: “We are experiencing some disruption due to an issue at @NATS Prestwick. We are monitoring the situation closely and working with Nats they resolve the issue.”
Nats has apologised for the issue and said passengers should still check the status of their flight with their airline.
A British Airways spokesperson said they are “doing everything we can to limit the impact on customers and are keeping them updated”.
A spokesperson for EasyJet said any customers flying today should “check our flight tracker for the latest information”.
Airlines have previously called for the resignation of Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe after the flight chaos earlier this month.
Jet2 chief executive Steve Heapy said today it was “simply not good enough for this critical national infrastructure to keep letting customers down”.
“Customers work hard to look forward to their holidays and airlines work hard to deliver those holidays. They should not be repeatedly exposed to delays and disruption because the UK’s air traffic control systems cannot be relied upon.”
A spokesperson for EasyJet added the issue “once again, calls into question the resilience of Nats’ systems and demonstrates the need for firm actions to prevent these repeated failures”.
Heapy called for urgent action. “There have been too many incidents, too many reports and too many promises of lessons being learned,” he said.
“What customers and airlines need now is action, accountability and proper resilience, and we need it urgently.”
Nats is the UK’s leading provider of air traffic control services and handles about 2.5 million flights per year.
Last July a “radar-related issue” caused an air traffic control failure which disrupted thousands of passengers and forced the cancellation of more than 160 flights.
In August 2023, more than 700,000 passengers suffered disruption when flights were grounded at UK airports when Nats experienced a technical glitch while processing a flight plan.










