Travel News - Week of 10 September

Carefully selected travel news, interpreted for the individual traveller. Checked 10 September 2026.

What this briefing covers. This is a weekly read on the ten destinations Great Wide Open writes about — Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain and the USA. It is not a global bulletin. A quiet week here tells you nothing about anywhere else: if you’re travelling to another country, please keep checking the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) advice and your own providers for developments that may affect your plans.

What matters this week

Britain’s air traffic control system failed on Tuesday, and UK airports are still catching up — this week that is the likeliest thing to touch your journey, wherever you are going. Record rain has flooded Nagoya and brought warnings to Tokyo. Schengen borders quietly lost the flexibility that kept queues moving. China’s new entry rules start on Tuesday. And two Italian strike dates are worth knowing if you connect through Rome.

At a glance

Development	Who it affects	Action
UK air traffic control failure; backlog still clearing	Anyone flying from a UK airport	Check your flight is operating before you leave home
Japan: record rain floods Nagoya; warnings for Tokyo	Travellers to central Japan	Check the JMA and your operator; allow a spare day
Schengen: EES border flexibility ended 6 September	Anyone flying to Spain or via a Schengen hub	Allow more time at passport control
China: new exit-entry rules from 15 September	Travellers to China	Be accurate on every visa and entry form
Italy: airport and air traffic strikes, 13 and 30 September	Anyone connecting through Italy	Check with your airline; avoid tight connections

Flights and getting there

The UK’s air traffic control system failed — and the airports are still catching up.
A fault in the flight data processing system at National Air Traffic Services (NATS) halted departures across the UK for about four hours from around 1pm on Tuesday 8 September. NATS fixed it that afternoon and has said categorically that a cyber attack was not the cause. The backlog has outlasted the fault: more than 2,000 flights to and from the UK were cancelled or delayed across Tuesday and Wednesday, and more than 300 were cancelled on Thursday, with Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted worst affected. Heathrow says it is recovering but expects further knock-on disruption as aircraft and crew get back into position. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says the outage is likely to count as an “extraordinary circumstance”, so cash compensation is unlikely — but that does not touch your right to a refund or rerouting, or to meals and a hotel if you are stranded overnight. Do not set off for the airport without checking your flight is actually operating.

Italy: two strike dates if you connect through Rome or Italian airspace.
Security staff at Rome’s Fiumicino and Ciampino airports are due to strike for 24 hours on Sunday 13 September, in action called by FAST-Confsal. Expect slow security queues all day, although flights in the protected windows of 07:00–10:00 and 18:00–21:00 are guaranteed. Then on Wednesday 30 September, Uiltrasporti has called a four-hour national strike at ENAV, Italy’s air traffic control provider, from 13:00 to 17:00 — that one can affect flights at every Italian airport, not just Rome. If either date falls on your itinerary, check with your airline and give yourself room.

Weather and natural events

Japan: record rain floods Nagoya and brings warnings to Tokyo.
Tropical Storm Krovanh, which we covered last week as it looped around the southern islands, has since weakened — but the warm, wet air it fed into a stationary front over Honshu has done far more damage than the storm itself. Nagoya recorded 104.5mm of rain in a single hour on Tuesday 8 September, the heaviest in 136 years of records there, beating the mark set in the Tokai floods of 2000. The city issued its highest-level emergency instruction for communities along the Kanare, Yada and Ueda rivers, and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a Level 5 flood warning for the Shonai river system. Subways were suspended, more than 2,800 people were displaced and at least 41 were injured. The JMA also warned of torrential rain across Tokyo and six other prefectures. Nagoya sits on the Tokaido Shinkansen between Tokyo and Kyoto, so check services before you travel and keep a spare day in hand.

Borders and entry rules

Schengen: the border flexibility ended on 6 September.
We flagged this last week without a firm date. It is now confirmed. The European Union’s (EU) Entry/Exit System (EES) — biometric registration for non-EU passport holders, British ones included — has been fully operational since 10 April, but member states kept discretion to suspend checks when queues built up. That flexibility expired on Sunday 6 September, and nine member states failed to persuade Brussels to extend it. Border officers now have far less room to ease the queue when a hall gets busy. If you are flying to Spain, or connecting through a Schengen airport, allow more time at passport control than you would have done in August.

China: new entry rules take effect on Tuesday.
China’s new Exit and Entry Administration Provisions — State Council Decree No. 841, signed in July — come into force on 15 September. The change that matters most to visitors is the penalty for inaccuracy: giving false information on a visa application, or at the border, can now bring an entry ban of one to five years. Supplying a false invitation or supporting document can also attract a fine. None of this should trouble an honest application, but it does raise the cost of a careless one — check every detail on your forms before you submit them.

Dates for the diary

13 and 30 September (Italy): Rome airport security strike, then national air traffic control action.
15 September (China): the new exit-entry rules take effect.
18 September (Japan): the Kyushu Shinkansen is due to resume full Hakata–Kagoshima-Chūō service, severed since July’s earthquake. Speed restrictions near Shin-Yatsushiro are expected to persist.
19 September (Japan): the Asian Games open in Aichi — expect pressure on accommodation and transport around Nagoya.
Europe: the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) is still expected late in 2026. Nothing to apply for yet.
South Korea: UK visitors stay exempt from the Korea Electronic Travel Authorisation (K-ETA) until 31 December 2026, but must still complete the digital e-Arrival Card.

Before you travel

This briefing is a weekly selection covering only our ten destinations, not a global or emergency service. For anything time-sensitive — or for any country we don’t cover — check the FCDO advice for your destination and your airline or operator directly. Rules and disruption can change between editions.

Travel News — week of 10 September 2026