Passengers facing disruption today after the latest Nats technical issue are "unlikely" to be entitled to compensation, the UK Civil Aviation Authority says.

It says the technical issue is "likely to be considered the result of ‘extraordinary circumstances’ under passenger rights rules", meaning that "although passengers should be looked after by airlines, they are unlikely to be entitled to compensation for delays or cancellations that were directly caused by the incident.”

Flight disruptions from an air traffic control fault twice in a fortnight is "simply not good enough", says travel agents' trade body Abta.

Abta's Luke Petherbridge says the public will "want answers" after the latest Nats error, adding: "This is the second Nats incident to cause disruption in the last fortnight, and fourth in recent years."

"The industry and travelling public will want answers – not only on what has gone wrong, but critically how the system is going to be made more resilient to avoid future outages."

Petherbridge also calls on the government to "seriously consider" whether Nats should be made to financially compensate the "wider industry for such events".

Image source, Reuters

Major airlines operating in the UK are questioning the resilience of Nats, following its latest technical error.

Here's what the companies have said.

• Wizz Air UK says there is a "confidence crisis" in Nats, calling for "urgent reform" of the organisation
• Jet2 says "urgent and accountable" action is needed to bolster the UK's air traffic control infrastructure
• Ryanair has called for Nats chief Martin Rolfe to resign, after failing to deliver "either a reliable system or an effective back-up"
• EasyJet says the flight disruption "calls into question the resilience of Nats' systems" and "demonstrates the need for firm actions"

Earlier, Nats said that this issue "has nothing to do" with the error that led to thousands of cancellations earlier this month.

We've just had an update from Nats, which says it is running at "full capacity" after fixing the system issue.

“The system is fixed and we are running at full capacity. We are now focused on working with our customers to recover their residual delays and help get their operations back to normal," a spokesperson says.

Earlier today, Nats said the issue was fixed, blaming a "connectivity issue" in the systems network.

We've received some updated figures from aviation analytics company Cirium, who say - as of 13:45 BST - around 200 flights have been cancelled or did not fly today.

This includes 100 flights scheduled to arrive in the UK and 99 that were due to depart from the UK, the figures show.

EasyJet is the most impacted airline, with 47 of its 670 scheduled departures cancelled, while British Airways has seen 11 cancellations from its 513 scheduled departures today.

Earlier, Cirium said 35 flights departing and 37 arriving to the UK were cancelled or did not fly so far on Monday.

Mary Litchfield
Your Voice

I spoke to a passenger who was due to fly from Belfast International airport to Newcastle this morning.

He is starting a new job and was due to go into the office this evening to sign paperwork which he will now miss. Luckily, he managed to rebook onto a flight for tomorrow.

Missing this appointment may affect his starting date for the new job which is "a big worry", he says.

"I'm due to move into a new property when I get over there. It's caused a lot of logistical bother," he adds.

"I feel for the staff who have taken the brunt of people’s reactions to the cancellations as it is not their fault, nor is there much that they can do about it.

"Whoever is responsible needs to be held accountable for the issues. Nobody seems to have any information as to how or why this happened but it has caused huge problems and created huge costs for myself and many other passengers that I spoke to."

Image source, Getty Images

Managing director of Wizz Air UK Yvonne Moynihan says the company is wondering: "What's next?" after what she calls a "national confidence crisis" in Nats.

"If this is just a millisecond glitch, why did it take down an entire traffic system?" she questions during an interview on Radio 4's World At One programme.

Asked whether the Nats chief should resign, Moynihan says: "We need to look at the leadership at the top. But more than that, what are the board of directors doing?"

"I don't have the confidence to be honest," Wizz Air's managing director says, when asked if she trusts the governance of Nats to "sort this out".

"There needs to be a change so that Nats are accountable," she adds, after calling for "urgent reform" of Nats.

Ben Philip
Reporting from Edinburgh Airport

It all appeared business as usual at Edinburgh airport this morning.

That was until we started hearing more and more passengers mentioning the dreaded travel words "delayed" and "cancelled".

A growing number of passengers gathered round information boards.

We spoke to several who told me they had just arrived at the airport to find out their flights had been cancelled and were awaiting further information. Many were here on holiday.

Image source, PA Media

We've just been taking a look at the departures boards across several airports.

In Manchester, upcoming flights to Amsterdam, Paris, Bodrum and Newquay are cancelled.

In Glasgow, there are cancellations for flights to London Heathrow, Belfast and Londonderry. In Derry, flights to Liverpool and Glasgow are cancelled.

In Belfast International airport, there are cancelled flights to Edinburgh, London Stansted, Liverpool and Newcastle.

Over in Edinburgh, there are cancellations for flights to Belfast.

Most flights at these airports appear to be departing, albeit with delays.

It's important to note that while some of these cancelled flights could be related to the Nats issue, we don't know if every single one is due to the technical error.

If you're flying today, make sure to check with your airline to see your flight's status.

Kevin Peachey
Cost of living correspondent

Once again, air passengers are being affected by air traffic control issues. But once again, those whose travel plans have been disrupted do have various rights.

The most important is that your airline must get you to your destination - even if that’s with a rival carrier - unless you opt to take a refund.

For lengthy delays, you may have the right to food, or a hotel stay, depending on the length of the wait.

When delays and cancellations are the fault of an airline, then passengers may be entitled to extra compensation.

But, as was the case with the last episode of air traffic disruption, these events are beyond the control of airlines, so no extra payments will be made beyond the basic rights mentioned above.

Image source, PA Media

While the technical issue affecting the Nats system has now been fixed, passengers are facing delays and cancellations of flights.

Here's what we've heard from some of those impacted:

• Becky Freeman has had to reschedule a business meeting for a second time after being caught up in today's disruption, having already pushed it back once following another Nats issue earlier this month
• Steve Davies, 74, and his wife Sandie are stuck at Birmingham airport after being told to disembark their easyJet flight to Edinbrugh this morning, He says he is "cheesed off with air traffic control" as technical issues seem to be "happening a lot"
• Nicole McCloskey, from Kilmarnock, planned to take her family to Disneyland Paris today, but their flight from Glasgow was cancelled. Nicole is determined to get there and has rebooked another flight for this afternoon
• Business director Peter Allison says he will miss the opening of a two day conference in Bordeaux after his flight was delayed and is worried about the cost to book another, describing the situation as "a bit of a nightmare"

Laura Cress
Technology reporter

Elaine Harding, an aviation technical expert, says today’s disruption is yet another reminder that "air traffic control is critical national aviation infrastructure" and an area where "technical resilience" really matters.

Nats has said the fresh issues have "nothing to do with the problem" which caused major disruption earlier this month - when a software defect in part of its National Airspace System upended travel plans for thousands of passengers.

But Harding says repeated failures in these systems will undoubtedly raise "questions" about their technical capabilities, and whether more investment is needed in them.

"Ryanair bosses complained of large increases in Nats pricing structure over the last year but the price increases are just signs of how much modernisation is needed and the cracks in the system are definitely showing," she adds.

In a new statement, a spokesperson for Nats says: "Any service interruption is unwanted, and something we take very seriously.

"In the real world we accept technology can and sometimes does fail. Our job is minimising disruption where possible.

"What isn’t acceptable is any incident where safety is compromised - this is always our first priority."

Paul Ward
Reporting from Glasgow airport

Nicole McCloskey, from Kilmarnock, was due to be on a cancelled flight to Paris with her husband and daughters Aoife and Nuala.

Nicole tells the BBC they got a message to say the flight was delayed while they were travelling to Glasgow airport, but they only found out it had been cancelled when they arrived.

They have rebooked another flight for this afternoon. "Fingers crossed it’s sorted in time," Nicole says.

"We were supposed to be going for four nights and going to Disney. Even if it is a shorter trip we will get there."

The girls say it will be worth the wait as long as they still get to meet Ariel and Rapunzel.

Archie Mitchell
Business reporter

Image source, Getty Images

The chief executive of airline Jet2 has called for "urgent and accountable" action to bolster the UK’s air traffic control infrastructure in the wake of the latest outage.

Steve Heapy says airlines and customers are "once again being disrupted by yet another NATS issue” and asked: "How many more failures do customers and airlines have to deal with?"

The airline rejected the idea of further "reports and apologies" to address the issue, and said it is "counting the cost of this disruption and will be sending another bill to Nats".

A spokesperson for the City of Derry airport says that there are delays on the easyJet Edinburgh service and Loganair's Heathrow service this morning.

There are also delays expected to Ryanair's Manchester route. Separately, the spokesperson says, easyJet's Liverpool service and Logainair's Glasgow service have been cancelled.

"We kindly advise all passengers affected to check with their airline for the latest updates on flights and contact their airline directly any queries," the spokesperson says.

They add live updates on arrivals and departures are available on the airport website.

Mary Litchfield
Your Voice

Peter Allison is the director of a small independent business of whisky makers and is flying from Edinburgh to London Gatwick, before travelling to Bordeaux for a two day conference.

But, with the delays he is going to miss his connection to Bordeaux and the first day of the conference.

Peter tells the BBC he is hopeful of booking another flight to get to Bordeaux for tomorrow, but says "it isn't great, as a small business, we don't have the funds to spend on flights".

His captain announced some flights had been allowed to take off, but warned they could be delayed for up to three hours.

"Communication has been really bad, we don't really know what's happening, the updates are few and far between. We don't really know what "NATS" or "slots" are as passengers, so it's not ideal.

"It's a bit of a nightmare."

Airlines UK, the trade body representing British airlines, says both passengers and airlines "deserve better" following the latest disruption caused by a Nats fault.

“Yet another Nats failure is causing delays and disruption for passengers and airlines alike, and comes just days after its report into the most recent major outage," says Airiness UK boss Tim Alderslade.

He says the UK's air traffic control system is "critical national infrastructure" and "must be resilient enough to keep people moving".

He adds that the upcoming civil aviation bill in Parliament "must address the underlying weaknesses in the system so that these failures stop happening".

Jack Grey
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

Dozens of flights have been delayed and some cancelled due to an air traffic control fault at the Nats Prestwick centre in Ayrshire, Scotland.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has announced the issue now been "fixed", but acknowledges it would be "deeply frustrating" for passengers after previous chaos caused by a separate Nats issue earlier this month.

Here's what we know:

• Nats, which confirmed the issue has been fixed, said it primarily impacted airports in the northern parts of the UK, with airports south of Manchester "broadly unaffected"

• Several airports, some further south of Manchester, reported varying degrees of disruption to arrivals and departures
• Nats described the fault as a "connectivity issue with part of our systems network", with disruption expected to remain while things get back up and running

Airlines have yet again made their frustrations with the UK's air traffic controls systems clear, with Ryanair chief operations officer Neal McMahon stating that Nats boss Martin Rolfe "should resign today".

EasyJet adds that the fresh flight disruption "once again calls into question the resilience of Nats' systems".

London City airport says it is experiencing "some disruption" following the air traffic control issue that is affecting flights primarily in Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.

The airport advises passengers to check with their airlines before setting out on their journeys.

Over at London Gatwick, a spokesperson says "a small number of flights" may face delays due to the Nats technical issues.

"Passengers should contact their airline for the latest updates," the statement adds.

Luton airport says "a number of domestic flights" to and from the airport have been disrupted, advising passengers to check with their airline before travelling to the airport.