Widespread flight delays hit major British airports

LONDON — Flights departing from at least two major British airports have been grounded following a “technical issue,” officials said Tuesday. London’s Heathrow Airport said in a statement Tuesday that it was working with Britain’s National Air Traffic Service to resolve the issue, advising passengers to check with their airlines for more information regarding their flights. “Arriving flights are not currently impacted,” Heathrow said, although it advised passengers to check flight times. London Gatwick Airport also said on X that it had been affected, and further north, Manchester Airport took to social media to warn that the issue “may result in delays.” Edinburgh Airport in Scotland issued a similar warning. After earlier blaming a “technical issue,” the National Air Traffic Service said in an update on X that its engineers had “implemented a fix, and our flight system is starting to recover.” Apologizing to passengers for the disruptions, it said flights were “departing and airspace is open, but recovery will take some time.” Heidi Alexander, Britain’s transport minister, also took to social media to apologize. “I know this will be frustrating for passengers and I’m sorry,” she wrote on X. With 84.5 million passengers last year, Heathrow ranked seventh in the table of the world’s busiest airports, according to data published by Airports Council International. Airline Ryanair said in a statement that 65,000 of its passengers were disrupted and 50 scheduled flights were canceled because of the disruption. Travel from Heathrow was severely disrupted in March last year when a massive fire at an electricity substation caused a predawn power outage at the global transport hub. The closure affected more than 1,300 flights and 200,000 passengers. After investigating 600 items of evidence related to the substation, the National Energy System Operator ruled out suspicious activity in a report saying a preventable moisture fault caused the fire, leaving almost 70,000 homes without power.