The head of Nats, the UK's air traffic control provider, is due to meet transport secretary Heidi Alexander as flight disruption stretched into a second day, with more than 1,300 flights cancelled at British airports. The problem stems from a "technical issue" in Nats's flight processing system, marking the third major stoppage in the network in just over three years and leaving tens of thousands of passengers affected at hubs including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted.

The fault began at around 1pm on Tuesday, disrupting departures nationwide before spreading to incoming flights across much of southern England; Nats said it fixed the system almost four hours later, though most scheduled departures had still not taken off by then. By 6am on Wednesday, FlightRadar recorded 246 cancellations at Heathrow and 33 at Gatwick, with further delays expected. Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe said he took "full responsibility" as head of critical infrastructure but insisted his focus was on restoring normal operations, ahead of his meeting with Alexander and the Commons debate on the Civil Aviation Bill.