Air traffic control problems spark travel chaos at the end of a holiday weekend in the UK

• Flights to and from the UK are facing delays amid air traffic control problems.
• Britain's National Air Traffic Service has "applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety."
• "We are seeing delays, and cancellations are likely," London Gatwick Airport said.

Flights to and from the UK are facing delays Monday after the air traffic control operator suffered technical problems.

NATS told Insider said it had "applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety" after experiencing a "technical issue."

"Engineers are working to find and fix the fault," NATS said. It apologized for any inconvenience the disruption may cause and said passengers should check the status of their flight with their airline.

"To clarify, UK airspace is not closed," NATS said. "We have had to apply air traffic flow restrictions which ensures we can maintain safety." 

The problems come at the end of a holiday weekend in the UK.

A representative for Heathrow, Britain's biggest airport, said: "As a result of national airspace issues there is disruption to flights across the UK. Passengers are advised to check with their airline for the latest information. We are working closely with NATS and other airport partners to minimise the impact this has on passengers."

"Delays, and cancellations are likely" at London Gatwick Airport, a representative told Insider.

Stansted, another London airport, posted on X it was "operating as normal" but that the air traffic control issue was "affecting some flights in and out of airports across the country."

One passenger told Insider: "We are on flight RK814 from Dublin to Edinburgh and we are grounded without much info. We boarded but were given a 6-7 hr delay. Current estimate from the pilot is 4hr 20 min."

CBS reporter Emmet Lyons posted on X that he was waiting on an easyJet plane to take off from Majorca, Spain when the pilot told passengers that there was an issue with UK air traffic control.

He posted a screenshot of a travel update from EasyJet, which said that the issue affected "all flights due to fly into or out of United Kingdom airspace," and that other routes could experience knock-on effects, too.

Another passenger posted on X that she had similarly been sat on a plane at Shannon Airport, Ireland, for an hour.