Thanks to a technical failure in Britain’s air traffic control system, multiple flights from Schiphol have now been grounded, with more potential delays and cancellations to come.
The issue arose early Tuesday afternoon, with NATS (the British National Air Traffic Service) reporting “a technical issue which is causing some disruption to flight departures”.
Helaas, due to a “complex recovery” creating a backlog of cancelled flights, there’s a decent chance your upcoming flight may also be affected. Here’s what to know.
Up to 58 Schiphol flights cancelled so far
As relayed by news agency ANP, a Schiphol spokesperson has confirmed that at least 58 flights between the airport and the UK have been cancelled.
NATS notes that it will “take time to recover” from the technical error, so experts aren’t ruling out the possibility of more delays and cancellations.
Altogether, more than 1,300 flights have been cancelled across the UK and Ireland, with London-Heathrow being one of the hardest-hit airports.
All told, 1300 flights were canceled to/from airports in the UK on Tuesday.
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) September 9, 2026
177 flights have been canceled so far on Wednesday, nearly all at London-Heathrow. pic.twitter.com/LWdZcDp36i
What went wrong?
According to NATS, the disruption hit its flight processing system, the tool used to safely coordinate aircraft. This led to a drop in capacity, as NATS needed to limit the number of planes that could safely use British airspace.
Given that the fault mainly affects departing planes, scheduled flights couldn’t take off, leading to a backlog. And with British airports at capacity, arriving flights are also being limited, reports NOS.
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