Birmingham Airport passenger reports two hour flight delay amid UK air traffic control failure

A Birmingham Airport passenger has reported that his Jet2 flight has been unable to take off for two hours as amid the UK air traffic control failure.

UK Air Traffic Control reported a significant failure of their systems at 12.10 this afternoon (Monday, August 28). Since then air passengers across the country have been warned that they could experience “significant delays”.

One passenger at Birmingham Airport has posted about his frustration on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, saying that he was due to fly to Rome at 12.25pmbut was stuck on the tarmac until at least 14:15. He said: “I was due to fly from Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport Rome today at 12:25pm back to Birmingham Airportbut have been stuck on the tarmac since then, not being allowed to take off. Currently we don’t know when we will fly or be let off the plane. Flying Jet2.”

Jet2 issued a statement to all passengers saying updating them about the issues and asking them to check the Jet2 website for the latest information regarding their flight. Birmingham Airport also advised passengers to check the latest information with their airlines and life flight data on the Birmingham Airport website and terminal screens.

A spokesperson said: “We’re working to understand the impacts of a UK-wide air traffic control failure, and timescales for it to be fixed. Customers due in or out of BHX are advised to monitor latest information from their airlines, live flight data on our website & on screens in our terminal.”

Air Traffic Control Service NATS issued its latest update about the issue at 14:20 saying: “This morning’s technical issue is affecting our ability to automatically process flight plans. Until our engineers have resolved this, flight plans are being input manually which means we cannot process them at the same volume, hence we have applied traffic flow restrictions.  Our technical experts are looking at all possible solutions to rectify this as quickly as possible.

“Our priority is ensuring every flight in the UK remains safe and doing everything we can to minimise the impact. Please contact your airline for information on how this may affect your flight.  We are sincerely sorry for the disruption this is causing.”