The airspace around London is open after a 'computer glitch' temporarily halted and delayed flights in the United Kingdom, Fox News reported
British National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said in a statement on Friday that there was a technical problem at its control center in Swanwick village in Hampshire.
It added that the technical failure forced authorities to restrict access to Britain's airspace "in order to manage the situation."
NATS added that the United Kingdom's airspace has reopened but traffic volumes restricted after the computer failure.
Meanwhile, the NATS managing director of operations said all parts of British air operations would start to get back to normal within the next two hours.
"The system is back up and running now. Over the course of the next couple of hours all parts of aviation infrastructure will start getting back to normal - the airports, the airlines and air traffic," Martin Rolfe added.
The shutdown caused lingering flight delays in and out of London, Heathrow officials said, urging passengers to check the status of their flights before leaving for the airport. About 50 planes were backed up at Heathrow as of 1730 GMT.