The head of the UK’s air traffic control company is facing calls to resign after a second technical disruption to flights in two years. Hundreds of flights were delayed on Wednesday after the system went down for about 20 minutes, raising fears of a repeat of the chaos in August 2023 that affected hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Nats, the company that runs the system, blamed a technical problem and said it had now been resolved. The issue affected flights across the UK, restricting the number of aircraft that could fly in England and Wales. British Airways was forced to limit inbound and outbound flights at Heathrow to 32 per hour until 7.15pm, before returning to the usual 45 per hour.
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.” He added that if Rolfe failed to resign, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander “must act without delay to remove Martin Rolfe and deliver urgent reform”.
At about 5pm, Nats said engineers had restored the affected system and were resuming normal operations. The technical issue was at its control centre in Swanwick, Hampshire. The UK National Cyber Security Centre does not view it as a hacking incident.
Alexander said she was aware of the issue and that systems had been restored, but continued disruption was expected. A Department for Transport spokesperson said they were working closely with Nats to understand the cause and implications, though Alexander has no direct control over Nats or staffing decisions.
