LONDON: A technical issue briefly caused flight delays in Britain on Wednesday before engineers were able to restore the system, the air traffic control operator said.

The National Air Traffic Service, or NATS, said the glitch happened at its control center at Swanwick, southwest of London, and required the service to limit the number of aircraft flying to ensure safety.

Gatwick Airport said the issue affected outbound flights across the UK Some inbound flights were put into holding patterns or diverted. About 20 minutes after issuing an initial alert, the agency said engineers had fixed the problem and that it was “in the process of restoring normal operations.”

The NATS system has suffered several software-related failures since it opened in 2002. In August 2023, a glitch meant flight plans had to be processed manually, rather than automatically. Hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled at the height of the summer holidays and some 700,000 passengers affected.