Arsenal's Champions League travel to Naples thrown into chaos by UK air traffic control outage

Arsenal’s preparations for their Champions League opener against Napoli were disrupted on Tuesday after a nationwide UK air traffic control failure grounded their flight to Naples, leaving the squad stranded at their training ground for several hours.

NATS, the body responsible for air traffic control services across 15 UK airports, confirmed that a technical failure forced the cancellation of more than 400 flights. Although NATS later said the issue had been “resolved”, it acknowledged that recovery “has taken longer than we had hoped”, with thousands of passengers still affected by delays and cancellations across the country.

Arsenal were not expected to land in Naples until around 9.30pm local time, significantly later than planned. The disruption also forced the club to postpone a scheduled press conference in Naples on Tuesday evening, at which manager Mikel Arteta and defender Riccardo Calafiori had been due to speak to journalists ahead of the club’s first European fixture of the season.

The match against Napoli marks Arsenal’s return to the Champions League group stage, and the travel setback adds an unwanted layer of disruption to what is a significant occasion for the club. Despite the delay, the squad eventually departed for the airport and were en route to Italy by Tuesday evening.