The UK government summoned the CEO of the company managing air traffic control systems to explain after a major system failure disrupted hundreds of thousands of passengers, repeating the 2023 incident.
On Wednesday, 9 Sep 2026 GMT+7, the UK government summoned the CEO of NATS, the company managing the country's air traffic control system, after the system malfunctioned for several hours on Tuesday, leading to about 2,000 flight cancellations and leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded.
Heidi Alexander, the UK Secretary of State for Transport, urgently called in Martin Rolfe, CEO of NATS, to explain the cause of the disruption. Meanwhile, Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, harshly criticized the event as a "replay" of the 2023 incident and called for Rolfe's resignation.
Ryanair stated they were informed the system failure was the same problem from 2023, which had caused over £100 million in damages. However, NATS and Rolfe reported the issue was a new problem with the flight data system at the Swanwick center, ruled out cyberattack as a cause, and are conducting an in-depth investigation.
By Wednesday, flights had begun to resume, but disruption continued due to the need to reorganize aircraft and crew schedules.
The incident forced Ryanair to cancel 260 flights affecting 48,000 passengers, with initial estimated losses of around £3 million. British Airways also canceled or rerouted hundreds of flights, impacting tens of thousands of passengers.
Heathrow and Gatwick airports, major airports in England, warned passengers to check flight statuses in advance as schedules have not yet returned to normal.
NATS, a public-private partnership, recently paid out £175 million in dividends to shareholders, sparking heavy criticism. Ryanair is suing NATS to claim damages from the 2023 incident and demands profits be reinvested to improve system efficiency and increase staffing instead.
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Source:cna