What travel insurance covers. If your flight was canceled due to specific reasons listed in your travel insurance policy—such as mechanical failure, the bankruptcy of the airline or a shutdown of the air traffic control system—your trip cancellation insurance can reimburse your forfeited, non-refundable trip costs.

In 2026, whether travel insurance covers an Air Traffic Control (ATC) failure depends heavily on the specific "Travel Delay" or "Trip Cancellation" clauses in your policy. Generally, most comprehensive policies do cover delays or cancellations caused by "unforeseen equipment failure" or "aviation system outages," which would include a localized or national ATC system collapse. However, many policies require the delay to exceed a certain timeframe (usually 6 to 12 hours) before benefits like hotel or meal reimbursement kick in. It is important to distinguish between a technical "failure" and "industrial action" (strikes). If ATC staff go on strike, this is often treated differently; some policies cover it if the strike was unannounced, while others exclude it entirely. In 2026, with the rise of automated flight systems, insurers are more specific about "cyber-related outages" as well. Always check the "General Exclusions" of your policy to ensure that "system-wide technical failures" are not listed as an exempt event.