Flights out of London airports, including Heathrow and Gatwick, were briefly grounded Wednesday afternoon because of a technical issue involving the region’s flight control system, according to representatives for the airports and the company that manages the radar.
NATS, a company that provides most air traffic control services for the United Kingdom, said in a statement on social media that “a technical issue” in its air traffic control system had forced it to limit the number of aircraft flying in the London area.
By 5:10 p.m. (12:10 p.m. Eastern), the company issued a statement saying that the problem had been fixed, adding that “our systems are fully operational and air traffic capacity is returning to normal. Departures at all airports have resumed and we are working with affected airlines and airports to clear the backlog safely.”
The impact of the brief outage, however, rippled through the system, affecting airports throughout the country at the height of the summer travel and vacation season, when many passengers from all over the world travel into and out of London. Heathrow is also one of the largest and most important hubs for European travel, and delays can spread across the continent quickly.
A Heathrow spokesperson said that departures had resumed but advised passengers to check with airlines before heading to the airport.
The delays on Wednesday came four months after a fire at a power substation shut down the airport for around 16 hours, disrupting travel for thousands worldwide.
The technical issue on Wednesday appeared to affect all of the airports in the London area and across the United Kingdom. Officials at London City Airport said in a social media post that flights into and out of the area had been halted or delayed.
A spokeswoman for Gatwick Airport near London said that normal operations were resuming but that travelers could experience some delays. Inbound flights had continued to land at the airport, but outbound flights were grounded during the disruption.
Flights were also affected at airports in Birmingham, Newcastle, Edinburgh and the East Midlands.
At Manchester Airport, flights were held for about 45 minutes, but by 5 p.m. they were restored, said Michael Murphy-Pyle, a spokesman for the airport, who added that the ripple effects of the disruption would most likely be minor.
“We’re not expecting to see serious knock-on effects, but there may be minor disruptions to flight schedules,” Mr. Murphy-Pyle said.
According to NATS officials, the outage occurred at the Swanwick air traffic control center in Hampshire, England. The company’s website said the facility controls “200,000 square miles of airspace over England and Wales as well as the complex airspace above London.”
The flight control center handles about 5,500 flights daily and more than 2 million flights — carrying about 200 million passengers — each year, the company said.
Jonathan Wolfe is a Times reporter based in London, covering breaking news.
Michael D. Shear is a senior Times correspondent covering British politics and culture, and diplomacy around the world.
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