Hundreds of flights across the UK, including to and from Manchester Airport, have been hit by delays due to an air traffic control issue.

The National Air Traffic Services (NATS) issue today (September 21) affected airspace in northern and central England, as well as in Scotland and Northern Ireland. A NATS spokesperson said the incident had been caused by an issue at its Prestwick centre in Scotland, which has since been fixed.

Delays are continuing, with some flights from Manchester Airport affected. NATS said the issue was unrelated to a software fault at Nats on September 8, which caused more than 2,000 flights to be cancelled, disrupting hundreds of thousands of passengers.

A NATS spokesman said: “Our engineers are continuing to investigate the issue at our Prestwick centre in Scotland. Airports south of Manchester are broadly unaffected, however flights heading north and flights departing Scottish airports are currently subject to some delay.

“Passengers should check with their airlines. This is unrelated to the issue two weeks ago. We apologise for the disruption.”

In an update just before 11am, the spokesperson added: “The issue in our Prestwick centre is now fixed. We are working with airports and airlines to safely lift air traffic regulations as quickly as we can to minimise any further disruption.

“Passengers should still check the status of their flight with their airline. We apologise for the disruption.”

Airlines have demanded urgent action amid the issue. Airlines including Ryanair have previously called for the resignation of NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe after the flight chaos earlier this month.

EasyJet has said the latest flight disruption 'calls into question the resilience of Nats’ systems', and Jet2 said customers and airlines need 'action, accountability and proper resilience'.

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