#Just in: NATS' technical issue resolved – 500 flights affected

At 15:15 UK time NATS (the UK's National Air Traffic System) assured the public that they have identified and remedied the technical issue affecting their flight planning system this morning. "We are now working closely with airlines and airports to manage the flights affected as efficiently as possible. Our engineers will be carefully monitoring the system’s performance as we return to normal operations.”

This follows a crisis that according to a number of media outlets in Britain affected more than 500 flights after a break-down in the air traffic controls forced NATS to resort to manually entering flight plans, which is normally an automated process.

At 14:20 NATS had shared an update: “The flight planning issue affected the system’s ability to automatically process flight plans, meaning that flight plans had to be processed manually, which cannot be done at the same volume, hence the requirement for traffic flow restrictions. Our priority is always to ensure that every flight in the UK remains safe and we are sorry for the disruption this is causing. Please contact your airline for information on how this may affect your flight.”