UK airport disruption: what are your rights if you have been affected?

Airline industryExplainerUK airport disruption: what are your rights if you have been affected?

Air traffic control issue affecting airports across UK on Tuesday has been resolved but disruption could continue into Wednesday

• Flight disruption continues after air traffic control technical issue

Zoe Wood and Rupert JonesTue 8 Sep 2026 13.13 EDTLast modified on Tue 8 Sep 2026 21.30 EDTSharePrefer the Guardian on Google

Airports across the UK including Manchester, Birmingham and all those in London were hit by problems at air traffic control on Tuesday.

The technical issue was announced shortly before 2pm and was resolved about three hours later. By that time, hundreds of flights had been cancelled, with knock-on disruption across Britain and at destination airports abroad likely to continue into the evening and possibly Wednesday.

Here we explain what you can expect if you have been affected.

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