London, Aug 30 (IANS): British Transport Secretary Mark Harper has said that the widespread travel disruption could last for days after flights were cancelled or delayed due to a technical fault in the air traffic control (ATC) system.

"Lots of flights were cancelled and it is going to take some days to get people back to where they should be," he told the BBC on Tuesday.

Data from an aviation analytics company showed that more than 1,500 flights, equivalent to over a quarter of all flights, in and out of the UK were cancelled on Monday after the ATC system was forced to revert to a manual backup system, Xinhua news agency reported.

As of Tuesday, 5 per cent of the planned flights departing and arriving at airports in the UK have been cancelled by 9:00 a.m. local time.

There will have to be an independent review at "a problem of this magnitude", said Harper, adding that there was no cyberattack involved.

Some airlines have warned passengers of "unavoidable delays" while adjusting their schedules.

Airports across the UK have advised passengers to check the status of their flights directly with their airlines before travelling to the airports.