UK National Air Traffic Service phone system broke down

Affected airports in the UK included Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Cardiff and Glasgow.

Thousands of passengers faced cancellations and long waits after the National Air Traffic Service (Nats) essential phone system broke down.

Nats announced at 1930 GMT that the problem had been fixed, but some airports said delays could continue into Sunday.

By 16:00 GMT Nats said it had handled 2,576 flights compared with 2,905 at the same time last week.

Ryanair said 300 of its flights were delayed on Saturday with 12 cancelled, and called on the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to act.

“While we acknowledge problems can occur, where is the contingency?” it said in a statement.

Heathrow had cancelled 228 flights by 18:55 GMT, a spokeswoman said, adding that there was now an average one-hour delay for departures.

By Saturday evening Gatwick airport said it was “returning to normal operations”. A spokeswoman said it was “not expecting serious disruption” on Sunday.

Delays at Stansted averaged two to four hours, a spokeswoman for the airport said, adding that schedules were expected to return to normal on Sunday but warning there could be “minor delays”.

No Easyjet flights have yet been cancelled but many were subject to delays.

It is not the first time that the state-of-the-art facility has hit the headline.