Flight chaos has spread to Spain after a major failure of the UK’s air traffic control system caused more than 1,000 cancellations.

The breakdown left passengers stranded in destinations including Malaga, Sevilla and Tenerife on Tuesday.

Holidaymakers took to social media to complain of cancelled flights, hours-long waits and a lack of information as disruption caused by the technical failure rippled across Europe.

The problems began after a fault hit Nats, the UK’s air traffic control provider, severely restricting the number of aircraft able to depart British airports.

At least 1,000 flights into or out of the UK were cancelled, according to tracking website FlightRadar24, with easyJet cancelling around 200 and British Airways more than 100.

Ryanair said more than 65,000 of its passengers had been delayed by up to eight hours.

The disruption was being keenly felt in Spain on Tuesday night, with multiple passengers reporting cancelled services between the two countries.

‘Absolute shambles’ at Malaga

One Ryanair passenger said his Malaga to Stansted flight had been cancelled, asking the airline on X: ‘What next??’

Another passenger complained that Ryanair flight FR9863 from Malaga to Liverpool had been cancelled and questioned why passengers had not been notified.

One traveller described the situation at Malaga Airport as an ‘absolute shambles’, claiming their Ryanair flight was cancelled after an eight-hour wait.

They said passengers had been left without information about where to go, how to retrieve their luggage or how to reach their hotels.

Another traveller said he had been left waiting two-and-a-half hours with two toddlers for a flight to Malaga before it was cancelled.

He claimed there were ‘thousands of people in the same situation’ and said he had not received a follow-up email detailing alternative flight arrangements.

British Airways also came under fire from passengers stranded in Malaga.

One traveller described the treatment of customers stuck at the Costa del Sol airport as ‘appalling’, criticising what he described as an absence of airline staff and difficulty contacting the carrier by telephone.

‘Unexpected night in Spain’

Not everyone was taking the disruption quite so badly.

One woman posted a smiling photograph after discovering her Ryanair flight home had been cancelled, joking: ‘My face when I get an unexpected night in Spain due to my flight home being cancelled. Ryanair, dinner is on you tonight.’

But elsewhere in Spain, passengers described considerably more frustrating experiences.

A British Airways passenger said his flight from Sevilla was still showing as going ahead just an hour before boarding, only to then be cancelled.

He praised Spanish airport staff for doing their best but accused BA of providing ‘ZERO communication’, claiming its app was still showing the flight as operating.

Meanwhile, the family of a passenger in Tenerife complained that TUI had cancelled a flight and alleged that there had been no assistance finding a hotel or alternative flight.

Vueling was also facing complaints after a passenger reported that a London to Malaga flight had been cancelled, with the next flight offered allegedly not departing for another three days.

Backlog across Europe

The scale of the problems goes far beyond Spain.

Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham were among the worst-hit British airports, with around 4% of UK flights estimated to have been cancelled or delayed because of the fault.

Heathrow departures were initially paused around lunchtime. Although traffic later resumed, further disruption followed and the airport reportedly ran out of space for incoming aircraft because departing planes were not getting away.

Thirteen Heathrow-bound flights were diverted to other airports in Britain and Europe.

The disruption also created a major knock-on problem as aircraft and crews were left in the wrong places around Europe.

That means cancellations and delays could continue even after the original technical failure is resolved.

One passenger travelling from Gatwick to Lanzarote told the BBC that his aircraft had boarded on time but then remained sitting on the tarmac for hours because it could not take off.

Systems beginning to recover

Nats said on Tuesday evening that its systems were starting to recover, but warned of continuing disruption as airlines worked through the backlog.

UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander similarly warned that ‘it will take time to fully resume flights’ and urged passengers to continue checking their flight status with airlines.

British Airways said it had been forced to cancel or divert more than 100 flights on Tuesday afternoon and warned of knock-on effects.

The airline urged customers whose flights had been cancelled not to travel to the airport, while passengers across all carriers have been advised to check the status of their service before setting off.

The incident is not the first major disruption involving Nats, and has prompted renewed criticism from airlines.

Ryanair and Wizz Air have previously called for an overhaul of the organisation, with Wizz Air describing Nats as ‘not fit for purpose’ in its current form.