Bristol Airport passengers faced delays and cancellations on the morning of Monday 21 September after National Air Traffic Services (NATS) reported a fresh technical fault at its Prestwick control centre in Scotland, the second such failure in under a fortnight.
NATS said its engineers were called in early on Monday after a connectivity issue affected part of its systems network specific to the Scotland operation. Air traffic regulations were applied to manage demand while the fault was investigated. By midday NATS confirmed the issue had been fixed and it was working with airports and airlines to lift the remaining restrictions "as quickly as possible to minimise any further disruption."
At Bristol Airport the disruption hit both departures and arrivals. Two easyJet services, the 10.40am flight to Barcelona and the 10.50am flight to Nice, were cancelled, according to live coverage from Bristol Live. A Bristol Airport spokesperson told the paper: "Similar to other UK airports, Bristol Airport is experiencing some delays and cancellations due to the NATS technical issue at Prestwick Centre. Customers should check with their airlines for latest information on their flight."
NATS said the fault was unrelated to the system failure at its centre that disrupted more than 2,000 flights across the UK and Europe on 8 September. A NATS spokesperson said airports south of Manchester were "broadly unaffected" in the first instance, but flights heading north or departing Scottish airports faced delays, with knock-on effects reaching aircraft rotations further south, including at Bris