The head of the UK's air traffic control company, Nats, is facing calls to resign after a second technical disruption in two years caused flight delays across the country. The system went down for about 20 minutes on Wednesday, leading to hundreds of delayed flights and raising fears of a repeat of the August 2023 chaos that affected hundreds of thousands of passengers.
British Airways was forced to restrict inbound and outbound flights at Heathrow to 32 per hour until 7.15pm, after which the flow rate returned to the usual 45 per hour. The UK National Cyber Security Centre has stated it does not view the incident as a hacking attack.
Ryanair called for Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign or be fired. The airline's chief operating officer, Neal McMahon, said: 'It is outrageous that passengers are once again being hit with delays and disruption due to Martin Rolfe's continued mismanagement of Nats. Yet another ATC system failure has resulted in the closure of UK airspace meaning thousands of passengers' travel plans have been disrupted.'
Nats confirmed that engineers had restored the affected system by around 5pm and were resuming normal operations. The technical issue, which originated at the control centre in Swanwick, Hampshire, restricted the number of aircraft that could fly in England and Wales, leaving many planes and crew out of position.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she had been informed that systems were restored but continued disruption was expected. A Department for Transport spokesperson noted that Alexander does not have direct control over Nats and has no powers over staffing decisions.
