Hundreds of flights in and out of Britain were canceled or delayed on Monday due to a technical issue with the country's air traffic control service. The issue, which affected the National Air Traffic Service (NATS), caused disruptions on one of the busiest travel days of the year. Over 200 flights departing from Britain were canceled, along with 271 scheduled to arrive in the country. Many other flights experienced delays of over eight hours.

While British airspace remained open, NATS restricted the number of flights to maintain safety while engineers worked to resolve the problem. Despite resolving the technical issue, air traffic remained disrupted. The timing of the disruption was particularly challenging as it occurred during the end of August, which is typically one of the busiest weeks for air travel. The backlog of flights is expected to cause disruptions for several days.

The disruption had little impact on U.S. airlines, but European flights were significantly affected. Passengers experienced long delays and uncertain departure times, with some spending hours in departure lounges or on the runway. The disruption has raised concerns among lawmakers and passengers alike, particularly since it occurred on a heavily traveled day. NATS, which is a public-private partnership with a 49 percent stake owned by the British government, has not provided an estimate for when the issue will be fully resolved.