A Nigerian passenger has described the frustration of being stranded at London Heathrow Airport after a technical failure in the United Kingdom’s air traffic control system disrupted flights and resulted in more than 2,000 cancellations across the country.

The disruption was triggered on Tuesday, September 8, by a fault in the flight data processing system operated by National Air Traffic Services (NATS), affecting Heathrow and several other major airports.

Aviation analytics firm Cirium reported that more than 1,750 flights were cancelled across UK airports on Tuesday, while another 327 services, about 5.6 per cent of the 5,869 flights scheduled for Wednesday, September 9, were cancelled.

Although flight operations began returning to normal by Thursday, September 10, the disruption caused significant delays for thousands of travellers.

British Airways was among the airlines hit hardest, cancelling about 550 flights across Tuesday and Wednesday and affecting more than 85,000 passengers.

The airline cancelled around 200 flights on Wednesday as it dealt with the impact of aircraft and crew being left out of position following the previous day’s disruption.

British Airways said it operated nearly 80 per cent of its schedule on Wednesday and had rebooked most affected passengers, while arrangements were being made for others.

A Nigerian passenger caught up in the disruption at Heathrow recorded the situation, describing the difficulties faced by travellers waiting for their flights and assistance.

“We haven’t been provided refreshments for over two hours that we have been stranded,” the passenger said.

Heathrow, the main hub for British Airways, experienced widespread cancellations and lengthy delays as the disruption affected the wider aviation network.

Other airports, including Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted, Edinburgh, Luton, London City and Bristol, were also affected.

NATS said the technical problem with its flight data processing system was resolved on Tuesday evening but warned that restoring normal operations would take time because of the backlog created by the outage.

NATS Chief Executive Martin Rolfe said an investigation would be necessary to determine the precise cause of the failure. Authorities ruled out a cyberattack, while the UK government requested an independent review by the Civil Aviation Authority.

The Civil Aviation Authority also reminded airlines of their responsibilities towards passengers affected by delays and cancellations. It said the incident was likely to qualify as “extraordinary circumstances”, meaning passengers would generally not be entitled to statutory compensation arising directly from the NATS failure.

However, airlines remained responsible for providing affected passengers with appropriate care and assistance during the disruption.

The incident has renewed concerns about the resilience of the UK’s air traffic control infrastructure.

By Thursday, flight schedules had largely returned to normal, with only limited delays reported, while investigations into the cause of the technical failure continued.