UK and European airports recovering from bank holiday chaos

Monday’s Air Traffic Control malfunction mostly affected short-haul services, with the knock-on effects still being felt around Europe. It stemmed from a malfunction that meant flight plans had to be inputted manually, slowing down the system to a crawl on a day of huge demand.

Heathrow’s cancellations today mainly hit its early morning first wave of flights, particularly from British Airways. At Gatwick, there was a spate of easyJet cancellations this morning on routes mainly using aircraft not based at the airport, such as Berlin or Milan. Stansted showed a handful of cancellations from Ryanair to both domestic and European routes. 

Outside the London area, things are returning to normal. At Manchester, easyJet has almost fully recovered its schedules and other carriers appear to be operating normally. However, Newcastle had a spate of early morning cancellations and delays, including a near-five hour delay for British Airways’ Heathrow flight, but now appears to be operating normally.