LIVE: UK air traffic chaos latest as cancellations and delays to last DAYS with thousands stranded

Travel disruption could last for days after flights were cancelled leaving thousands of passengers stranded following an air traffic control technical fault.

Holidaymakers were hit by bank holiday travel delays, which started on Monday after a UK air traffic control failure meant flight plans had to be input manually by controllers.

By Monday afternoon, 232 flights departing UK airports had been cancelled and 271 arriving flights, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. This equates to about 8% of all expected departures and 9% of expected arrivals, Cirium added.

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National Air Traffic Services (Nats), the country’s leading provider of air traffic control, said at 3.15pm that it had “identified and remedied” the technical issue affecting its systems and it was working with airlines and airports to support affected flights.

On Monday Juliet Kennedy, operations director at Nats, said the issue meant the automatic system that provides controllers with details of every aircraft and its route had stopped working, and what happened will be investigated “very thoroughly”. She also apologised for the impact on people’s travel plans.

But thousands of passengers expecting to arrive back in the UK say they are stranded today - with one family telling the Manchester Evening News that they were forced to sleep on an airport floor overnight.

Major UK airlines such as Tui and BA warned of “significant delays” for passengers amid changes to schedules.

Passengers were urged by airlines to check before they leave for the airport as their flight times may have changed.

Rail operator TransPennine Express (TPE) said it is allowing customers