Ryanair has confirmed it cancelled 1,000 flights in September, partly attributing the disruption to the recent "collapse" of Britain's air traffic control system. The Irish airline said the cancellations stemmed from two separate air traffic control (ATC) failures within a fortnight of one another last month, alongside ATC strikes in Belgium and widespread disruption across Europe caused by volcanic ash clouds from eruptions at Mount Etna.
Pressure on Nats leadership
The head of Britain's National Air Traffic Services (Nats), Martin Rolfe, has faced mounting calls to quit following a string of air traffic failures that led to thousands of flight cancellations across the industry last month, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded. The most recent incident was triggered by a "connectivity issue" at its Prestwick centre in Scotland, which was unrelated to an ATC software fault on September 8 that sparked widespread travel chaos.
Ryanair has been amongst those demanding Mr Rolfe's resignation, while Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has arranged a meeting with Nats chairman Sir Warren East, the former chief executive of Rolls-Royce, in the coming weeks to address the ongoing issues.
Latest Ryanair figures
Ryanair's most recent traffic statistics revealed the airline operated over 111,700 flights last month, carrying 20.1 million passengers, a rise of 4% year on year. Wizz Air also released passenger data showing a 24% increase year on year in passengers flown last month, reaching 7.78 million, with capacity up 25.3%.
Yet Wizz announced recently it would slash its flight schedule by 5% over the second half of 2026 owing to broader Iran war pressures on the travel sector and spiralling fuel costs.
