The British air traffic control service experienced a “technical issue” on Monday, significantly disrupting flights in and out of Britain.
“We are currently experiencing a technical issue and have applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety,” the National Air Traffic Service said in a statement. “Engineers are working to find and fix the fault.”
The delays are hitting at a heavy travel period, as people return from vacations or extended trips on Monday’s “bank holiday,” or national day off, in Britain. Customers were advised to check the status of their flight before traveling to airports.
The European air control agency, Eurocontrol, reported that Britain was experiencing “a flight data processing system failure” with “very high individual delays.”
“Currently there is no indication of when a solution for the failure will be available so no improvements for flights entering U.K. airspace are foreseen in the near future,” the agency added.
The Scottish airline Loganair warned Monday on social media that there had been “a network-wide failure of U.K. air traffic control computer systems this morning.”
The Glasgow-based airline said that while it was “hopeful of being able to operate most intra-Scotland flights on the basis of local coordination and with a minimum of disruption, north-south and international flights may be subject to delays.”