Heathrow Airport, and airlines including Tui and British Airways, say they expect “significant disruption” to flights to continue – after yesterday’s air traffic control system failure.

The fault’s now fixed, but it meant take-offs and landings had to be processed manually – having a knock-on effect into today.

Some passengers say they’ve been left “stranded” at airports.

Air traffic control operator, NATS posted this apology online, from operations director Juliet Kennedy.

Transport secretary Mark Harper’s urging passengers to be ‘aware of their rights’ over flight cancellations and delays.

But travel experts say airlines aren’t obligated to pay compensation, because of ‘extraordinary measures’ outside their control.

They do have to make sure passengers are ‘comfortable’ when delays are ‘significant’ – and customers can get receipts reimbursed for ‘reasonable’ arrangements.