Britain's National Air Traffic Service (NATS) said it had "identified and remedied" a technical issue which affected its flight planning system on Monday, causing widespread disruption across Europe to flights using UK airspace.

"We are now working closely with airlines and airports to manage the flights affected as efficiently as possible. Our engineers will be carefully monitoring the system’s performance as we return to normal operations," NATS said in a statement.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; Editing by Hugh Lawson)