Newcastle Airport warning of delays and cancellations after air traffic control issues
Flights across the UK are subject to delay or cancellation this morning - though NATS says the issue has now been remedied
Air passengers at Newcastle airport are being warned they face delays after UK air traffic control systems were hit by a technical fault.
Several flights in and out of Newcastle have been cancelled, with more delayed as well.
The National Air Traffic Services, the country's leading provider of air traffic control services, said it has applied traffic flow restrictions on Monday to maintain safety following a technical issue.
In a statement the service said: "We are currently experiencing a technical issue and have applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety. Engineers are working to find and fix the fault.
"We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
“Please check with your airline on the status of your flight. We will provide updates on www.nats.aero for the latest news and on X - @NATS.
"UK airspace is not closed"
"To be clear, UK airspace is not closed, we have had to apply air traffic flow restrictions which ensures we can maintain safety."
Later on in the afternoon the service said: "We have identified and remedied the technical issue affecting our 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."
Gary Wallace is stranded on his stag do in Barcelona, and is trying to make it back home.
The group already had an extra night last night because of problems with the plane – but he says they are not being kept up to date with the air traffic control situation: “We’re just hanging fire just now, hanging tight, see what happens.
“But it’s very likely we’re all going to have to get back on a bus. Yesterday we were up for it, today we’re not. We just want to get home.”