Travel chaos as planes grounded across multiple major UK airports

Thousands of passengers are affected

The issue has affected London airspace, and forced all departing flights from major travel hubs including Heathrow and Gatwick to be grounded.

It has also affected flights from airports such as Edinburgh and Birmingham.

The EU traffic control agency Eurocontrol said that the London are was “temporarily unavailable due to technical issues”.

A source at the agency told The Telegraph that the issue was due to a radar failure in an isolated incident.

The most recent update states that the fault has now been fixed, and NATS - the UK's air traffic authority - says they are "in the process of resuming normal operations".

"Departures at all airports have resumed and we are working with affected airlines and airports to clear the backlog safely," the body said.

"We apologise to everyone affected by this issue."

Flights are now resuming, but airports are warning of delays and cancellations.

An earlier statement from NATS read: "As a result of a technical issue at NATS Swanwick air traffic control centre, we are limiting the number of aircraft flying in the London control area in order to ensure safety, which is always our first priority.

"We apologise for any delays this may cause.

"Our engineers are working hard to resolve the problem as quickly as possible and we are working closely with airlines to help minimise disruption.

"At this stage we cannot say how long it will be before operations are back to normal. Please check with your airline on the status of your flight."