Delays in the plane in Gatwick: thousands of people stuck after two hours of runway closure

Thousands of airline pbadengers woke up far from where they wanted to be after canceling dozens of flights to and from Gatwick Airport.

Many other services were canceled Thursday morning, as airlines struggle to get the planes, pilots and cabin crew back in place.

The most affected services are those involving aircraft that had to leave Wednesday night.

British Airways canceled the connections between Edinburgh, Glasgow and Jersey and Gatwick, while easyJet arrivals from Inverness, Madrid and Milan were blocked.

Norwegian canceled a round trip from Gatwick to New York. Thursday's departure at 10 am for JFK has been delayed to 21 hours.

Problems with the air traffic control system on Wednesday led to the closure of the busiest track in the world for nearly two hours starting at 5:08 pm

Gatwick has the world's busiest runway, with a take-off or landing every 80 seconds at rush hour.

Arrivals and departures are managed by Air Navigation Solutions (ANS), a subsidiary of the German organization Deutsche Flugsicherung, rather than the main UK supplier, Nats.

An airport spokesman said late Wednesday: "The flights resumed in Gatwick as a result of a previously encountered problem with the systems operated by ANS in our air traffic control tower.

"As we resume operations, we may see delays and other cancellations tonight.

"We apologize to the pbadengers who have been touched and wish to operate a full program of flights tomorrow.

"We continue to advise all pbadengers traveling tonight or tomorrow to check the status of their flight with their airline before traveling to the airport."

Shortly before Christmas, Gatwick Airport was closed for 33 hours, disrupting 160,000 pbadenger plans due to unauthorized UAV activity.