Air traffic control boss to face Transport Secretary as flight chaos to continue

There is expected to be more disruption as airlines deal with the knock-on effects of Tuesday’s cancellations and delays.

The boss of an air traffic control provider will speak to the Transport Secretary on Wednesday as disruption is set to continue after a technical issue grounded flights.

Flight monitoring website Flightradar24 said more than 1,000 flights had been cancelled at UK airports by about 8pm on Tuesday after a system issue hit Nats, which provides air traffic control services to 15 UK airports.

Tens of thousands of passengers were caught up in the chaos, which is set to continue into Wednesday with cancellations and delays expected as airlines deal with the knock-on impacts at airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted.

Nats’ chief executive officer Martin Rolfe said he “always accept(s) full responsibility” when asked if he was considering his position after the incident.

He told Sky News: “I am the CEO of a piece of critical infrastructure, so it is my job to take responsibility for that.

“What I absolutely take responsibility for is keeping people safe and delivering the best service we possibly can on a day like today.

“You will understand my focus is entirely about how we actually resolve this issue, get things back to normal, help our airlines, our airport customers and the travelling public.”

Travel journalist Simon Calder said the knock-on effects on Wednesday were “going to be horrible”.

He told Sky News: “There are going to be dozens of cancellations in the morning of flights coming into Heathrow because, basically, the flights didn’t go out tonight.”

Ryanair said more than 65,000 of its passengers had been disrupted and it had cancelled more than 50 scheduled flights.

British Airways (BA) said it was forced to cancel or divert more than 100 flights on Tuesday which had impacted “tens of thousands of customers”.

Mr Rolfe has been under fire from Wizz Air and Ryanair after the latest issue which saw some passengers trapped on planes on runways for hours.

Neal McMahon, Ryanair’s chief operating officer, called on Mr Rolfe to resign, saying: “How many more failures do passengers have to suffer before overpaid failure Nats CEO Martin Rolfe accepts responsibility for his repeated mismanagement and resigns?

“Over three years after Nats’ catastrophic 2023 system meltdown, it’s clear that nothing has changed, with UK passengers once again suffering avoidable ATC (air traffic control) delays of up to eight hours today due a critical Nats ATC system failing.”

On Tuesday night, Nats said on X: “Work is continuing to assist airlines and airports recover from today’s disruption.

“This has been a very complex recovery and has created difficulties for the whole aviation network, from which it will take time to recover.

“We apologise again for the disruption caused. Passengers should check with their airline on the status of their flight tonight or tomorrow.”

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is set to speak with Mr Rolfe on Wednesday before she addresses MPs in the Commons for the second reading of the Civil Aviation Bill.

Among the thousands facing disruption on Tuesday was Josie Donoghue, who had to get off her flight to Ireland after spending three hours on the runway at Gatwick.

Ms Donoghue said: “Getting through that airport was like trying to get out of Alcatraz. We were trapped in there. We were told we couldn’t get out until the flights were cancelled, and then eventually they allowed us to get out.

“It’s just an absolute nightmare down there, it’s the only word I can use to describe it.”