LONDON (Reuters) -A technical issue at Britain’s air traffic controllers disrupted flights at major airports in London and elsewhere in the country on Wednesday, though the issue was later resolved and departures were resuming. "Our systems are fully operational and air traffic capacity is returning to normal," NATS, the country’s air traffic control provider, said in a post on X. "Departures at all airports have resumed and we are working with affected airlines and airports to clear the backlog safely. We apologise to everyone affected by this issue." The outage, announced by NATS 20 minutes earlier, included Heathrow Airport, Britain’s largest airport and Europe’s busiest. "Flights at Heathrow have resumed following a technical issue at the NATS Swanwick air traffic control centre. We are advising passengers to check with their airline before travelling," an airport spokesperson said. Gatwick Airport and Edinburgh Airport also said operations were resuming. London City Airport had earlier also reported disruption. It was not clear exactly how long the outage had lasted. In August 2023, flights across Britain were disrupted after the automatic processing of flight plans malfunctioned. ($1 = 0.7534 pounds) With valuations skyrocketing in 2024, many investors are uneasy putting more money into stocks. Unsure where to invest next? Get access to our proven portfolios and discover high-potential opportunities. In 2024 alone, ProPicks AI identified 2 stocks that surged over 150%, 4 additional stocks that leaped over 30%, and 3 more that climbed over 25%. That's an impressive track record. With portfolios tailored for Dow stocks, S&P stocks, Tech stocks, and Mid Cap stocks, you can explore various wealth-building strategies.

A small fire in the Escape Lounge at London Stansted Airport caused smoke and temporary security delays on Wednesday morning. No injuries were reported, but passengers were urged to check flight statu...

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Cirium has revealed the leading travel destinations from UK airports this weekend and how these compare to last year.

Find out which UK airports have the highest and lowest cancellation rates and learn what to do if your flight is cancelled. Essential advice for travellers.

The CAA Airport Accessibility Report ranked 28 UK airports on assistance for disabled pax. It identifies three airports needing improvement.

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LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s Heathrow defended its decision to shut down operations at Europe’s busiest airport last Friday as the blame game intensified over an 18-hour closure which cost airlines tens of millions of pounds and stranded thousands of passengers. As questions mounted over how such a critical part of Britain’s infrastructure could fail and whether all Heathrow’s four terminals needed to shut, both National Grid (LON:NG) and Heathrow agreed that the failure of the transformer was an unprecedented event. But the airport was forced to defend its closure after the boss of National Grid told the Financial Times that the electricity transmission network remained capable of providing power to the airport throughout the crisis. Heathrow said the fire at a nearby substation late on Thursday interrupted its operations, forcing it to shut while it reconfigured systems and switched to power from an alternative substation. "Hundreds of critical systems across the airport were required to be safely powered down and then safely and systematically rebooted," a Heathrow spokesperson said. "Given Heathrow’s size and operational complexity, safely restarting operations after a disruption of this magnitude was a significant challenge." John Pettigrew, the CEO of National Grid, said there were two other substations able to provide power to Heathrow, showing that the grid was resilient. "Two substations were always available for the distribution network companies and Heathrow to take power," he told the FT. While airlines such as British Airways, the worse affected, add up the bill for the closure, the government and Heathrow have both commissioned reviews into what happened. "It’s really important that we do learn the lessons from this, and that’s why I think those two reviews...are going to be really critical," Transport Minister Heidi Alexander told Sky News on Monday. Asked on LBC Radio about whether she had confidence in Heathrow’s CEO Thomas Woldbye, Alexander said she wanted to see the results of the reviews. Heathrow is a private company owned by French investment group Ardian, Qatar Investment Authority and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund plus others.

Airlines are demanding answers after an air traffic control failure led to 150 flights being cancelled on Wednesday.

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