UK transport minister summons air traffic chief after mass flight cancellations

Britain's transport minister has summoned the head of the country's air traffic control service for talks as airlines work to clear a massive backlog caused by a technical failure that grounded more than 1,750 flights.

The disruption began on Tuesday, throwing travel plans into chaos across the UK and leaving passengers stuck for hours on runways and inside terminals. Although the fault in the flight processing system has since been fixed, knock-on delays are expected to persist through Wednesday as carriers rebook stranded travellers and reposition aircraft that ended up at the wrong airports.

National Air Traffic Services (NATS), which runs the control system, has apologised for the incident. Its chief executive, Martin Rolfe, defended the organisation's safety record, saying the system remains among the safest and most efficient globally. He stressed that any decision to restrict flights is never taken lightly and only when there is a problem that cannot be quickly resolved.

However, the outage has reignited criticism from budget airlines Ryanair and Wizz Air, which have called for Rolfe's resignation following what they describe as a second major failure in three years.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she is seeking assurances that lessons will be learned and that aviation support systems are robust enough for the future.