NEW DELHI: 1000-plus flights between India and the UK are cancelled or diverted due to the breakdown of air traffic control services in the UK.
Flights operated from India to the UK by Air India, IndiGo and British Airways are among those impacted. Though the issue has been resolved for now, it will continue to interrupt hundreds of flight services due to the knock-on impact.
Air India flight AI 2107 from Delhi to London Heathrow has been diverted to Paris airport.
Passenger Mohammad Irfan Khan posted on X: "At Paris airport: no individual from Air India, no passengers, no water, no food, no update on next step. People travelling with infants and kids."
AI 131 from Mumbai to London was diverted to Zurich last night. The flight carrying nearly 300 passengers on board was cancelled later, and all passengers deboarded at Zurich.
In a statement, Air India said, "Flights operating to and from airports in the United Kingdom have been impacted by a technical fault at NATS, the UK air traffic control provider. As a result, Air India has been forced to divert, delay or cancel multiple flights scheduled to operate to and from UK airports. This may lead to delays in some of our other services, too, as our aircraft and crews are out of position following the disruption."
It asked passengers to check the latest status of their flights before proceeding to the airport.
"We are closely monitoring the situation and are making every effort to minimise disruptions as much as possible," it added.
The service provider NATS has restored the services, but resumption of normal flight services is expected to take a long time due to the backlog that needs to be cleared, say reports emanating from Europe.
IndiGo claimed not to have details of its impacted flights and said it would get back soon.
British Airways said it had been forced to divert or cancel more than 100 flights. It added that the scale of the disruption had left aircraft and crew in the wrong locations.
