Travellers between Britain and Lanzarote had a rough few days after the UK's air traffic control system failed on Tuesday 8 September. Seven flights from the UK to the island were cancelled, from Gatwick, Luton, Edinburgh, Glasgow Prestwick, Newcastle, Bristol and Manchester, and plenty more landed three or four hours late.
The trouble started with a technical fault in the flight-processing system run by NATS, the UK's air traffic control provider. It hit early on the Tuesday afternoon and was repaired by about 4.40pm, but the damage was done, aircraft and crews were scattered in the wrong places, and it took days to put right. Close to 2,000 flights were cancelled across the UK on the Tuesday and Wednesday, with Ryanair reporting around 150,000 passengers affected and British Airways cancelling or diverting about 100 flights.
The fault sat in the UK system, so it disrupted British flights wherever they were headed. Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Tenerife South all lost UK arrivals or saw them delayed, and the backlog dragged on for several days. It is the reason a problem hundreds of miles away can still ground your flight, if the plane due to fly you out is stuck at another airport, you are going nowhere until it arrives.
NATS has apologised and says a cyberattack has been ruled out. This is the third failure of its kind in recent years, following a flight-planning collapse in August 2023 that cost airlines a reported £100 million in refunds, and a shorter one in July 2025, and the UK government has asked for assurances that the system is now dependable.
If you are flying between the UK and Lanzarote in the next few days, check with your airline before setting off, as knock-on delays outlast the original fault. Know your rights too. A cancelled flight means the airline owes you either a full refund or a seat on the next available service, including on another airline if that gets you home sooner, and a long delay obliges them to cover food and a hotel if you need one.
