Britain’s National Air Traffic Service (NATS) has been forced into air traffic restrictions today as officials work to deal with a technical issue that has arisen, with airlines and airports warning of flight delays and cancellations across the country. Europe.

The countries most affected seem to be Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece.

“We are currently experiencing a technical issue and have implemented traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety. Engineers are working to find and fix the problem“, said a representative of NATS, adding that British airspace has not been closed.

NATS said the problem is impacting its ability to automatically process flight plans.

“Until our engineers resolve the issue, flight plans are being entered manually, which means we cannot process them at the same volume… Technical experts are looking at all possible solutions to fix the issue as quickly as possible,” he added.

Many passengers posted on social media to say they were stuck on planes on runways or in airport buildings in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Israel and elsewhere, waiting to depart on a busy public holiday day. today in parts of Britain.

Delays in many flights and at Athens airport. See an indicative table from the arrivals, a little while ago

An eyewitness who was inside a plane stuck on the runway bound for Budapest said the pilot informed passengers of a possible delay of 8-12 hours.

Airport managements like his Manchester and of his Stansted London they warned of possible problems in flights. Other airports such as London Luton and Birmingham they said they were working to understand the impact of the problem and the timescale within which normal operations could resume, while British Airways also stressed that it was working closely with NATS to understand the extent of the problem. Other airlines, including Ryanair, said some flights to and from the UK would be delayed or cancelled.

Irish air traffic control provider AirNav Ireland said the problem was causing “significant delays to flights across Europe traveling to, from or through UK airspace”.

A spokesman for the management of London Heathrow Airport, the busiest hub in western Europe, said the airport was working with NATS and other airport partners to minimize the impact on passengers, while Gatwick, south London, said possible flight cancellations.

Its airport management Dublin highlighted that air traffic control issues are resulting in delays and cancellations of some flights to and from the Irish capital and advised passengers due to travel today to contact their airline in advance to find out about their flight.

Earlier, Scottish airline Loganair said in a post on Platform X that there had been a failure in the network of air traffic control computer systems in Britain, warning that there could be delays to international flights.