A technical disruption at British air traffic control NATS on September 8, 2026 severely impacted flight operations at several airports. Departures from London Heathrow were particularly affected. Gatwick, London City, Stansted, Manchester and other British airports also reported delays and cancellations. British airspace remained open in principle. According to NATS, the problem lay in the flight plan processing system. At times, only a few aircraft could take off. In the late afternoon, NATS announced that a technical solution had been implemented. However, a return to normal operations would require time. According to Flightradar24, at least 625 flights were cancelled in the UK. In addition, there were numerous delays. Heathrow was among the most heavily affected airports. SWISS CANCELS TEN FLIGHTS SWISS had to cancel ten individual flights to and from the UK by Tuesday evening. According to the airline, 1,007 passengers were affected. The number does not refer solely to London Heathrow. SWISS connections to Heathrow, Gatwick, London City and Manchester were impacted. For Wednesday, the airline planned to deploy larger aircraft on individual routes to offer additional seating capacity. Passengers are to be automatically rebooked onto the next available flight where possible. Due to impacts on aircraft, crew and available departure slots, further delays may occur. CARGO CAPACITY ALSO LOST The disruption also has consequences for air freight. Swiss WorldCargo transports shipments in the cargo hold of regular SWISS passenger aircraft. When such a flight is cancelled, the scheduled cargo capacity is also unavailable. Whether all ten cancelled flights actually carried booked shipments has not yet been confirmed. SWISS has not published information on the affected cargo volume. A concrete figure in tonnes would therefore be speculation. The London station of Swiss WorldCargo is located at Heathrow. General cargo, express shipments, dangerous goods, valuable shipments, perishable goods and temperature-controlled pharmaceutical products are handled there. According to the network plan, London has both air connections and truck transportation options available. Time-sensitive shipments could be rebooked to later flights or alternative connections within the Lufthansa Group. Road transport is also possible. However, shippers must reckon with longer transit times, customs formalities and limited alternative capacity.