Dublin and Cork airport operator daa has said flight schedules at Cork and Dublin airports are “largely back on track this evening”, with a small number of delays still expected.
The update followed some delays to flights to and from Cork and Dublin airports earlier this evening due to a “technical issue” involving British air traffic control which has now been resolved.
“At Dublin Airport, the issues in the UK resulted in three inbound flights being diverted to other airports, while four flights (Dublin-Lisbon, Lisbon- Dublin, Dublin-Amsterdam and Venice-Dublin) were cancelled by airlines,” daa spokesperson Graeme McQueen said.
He added that four flights were cancelled at Cork Airport: Cork-Amsterdam, Amsterdam-Cork, Frankfurt-Cork and Cork Frankfurt.
Daa had advised passengers due to fly this evening to contact their airline directly for updates on their flight.
“Some delays to flights to and from Cork and Dublin airports are possible this evening due to a now resolved air traffic control issue in the UK, which impacted on flights flying over the UK for a period of around 30 minutes earlier this afternoon,” daa said in a previous statement.
“Passengers due to fly this evening are advised to contact their airline directly for updates on their flight.”
Air traffic control provider Nats said its engineers have “restored the system that was affected” and it is “in the process of resuming normal operations”.
The technical glitch affected flights across the UK as the number of aircraft which could fly in England and Wales was restricted, the company said.
It left many aircraft and flight crew out of position.
While the issue was ongoing, British Airways said the problem was “affecting the vast majority of our flights”, while Birmingham airport said “departing flights from many UK airports have been suspended”.
Several flights scheduled to arrive at UK airports were forced to conduct holding patterns or divert elsewhere.
Nats said the “technical issue” was at its control centre in Swanwick, Hampshire.
ℹ️ Technical issue at Swanwick
Our systems are fully operational and air traffic capacity is returning to normal.
(1/2) https://t.co/69ftwzLeSK pic.twitter.com/KKDercVfqa— NATS (@NATS) July 30, 2025
British Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said: “I am aware of a technical issue which impacted Nats’ operations causing travel disruption this afternoon.
“I have been informed systems have now been restored but continued disruption is expected, and passengers should check with individual airports for advice.”
Meanwhile, Ryanair has called for Nats’ chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign after the air traffic control fault.
The airline claimed “no lessons have been learnt” since the August 2023 system outage.
More than 700,000 passengers suffered disruption when flights were grounded at UK airports on August 28 2023 when Nats suffered a technical glitch while processing a flight plan.
