Flights have been grounded for hours at Gatwick Airport on Saturday morning (Picture: Reuters)
Passengers at Gatwick Airport are facing long delays after an air traffic control glitch.
Flights have been grounded for hours after the busy airport was hit with a major systems outage at around 8am on Saturday.
No planes were allowed to take off while workers attempted to reset the system, causing chaos for travellers.
Delays are likely to last all day due the knock-on effect of departure times being pushed back this morning.
Some planes were reportedly stuck on the runway for more than an hour waiting to let people off, while aircraft due to take off were also sent back to the stand.
Other passengers have hit out on social media including one woman who feared her child would miss a trip to Lapland.
Another passenger, Tina Daheley, said on X: ‘Winning the lottery in 2023 is also getting a plane from Gatwick Airport that leaves on time. “System failure” means our flight to Tenerife is currently delayed for an unspecified amount of time.’
A London Gatwick spokesperson said: ‘There was an outage to a local NATS system earlier this morning which has now been rectified.
‘No cancellations have resulted from this, but some passengers may experience delays.
‘We apologise for any inconvenience.’
Back in August, a major air traffic control failure left thousands of air passengers stranded.
The ‘technical issue’ grounded 500 flights across the UK at the time and was branded an ‘international embarassment’.
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Flights have been grounded all morning.