Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary has called for the chief executive of Britain's National Air Traffic Services (NATS), Martin Rolfe, to be sacked following a major technical failure that caused widespread flight disruptions for a third time in three years. O'Leary accused Rolfe of "hiding behind safety" and stated that someone competent should be brought in to manage the air traffic control system.
The technical issues, which began on Tuesday, have led to significant chaos, with dozens more flights cancelled on Friday. London Heathrow Airport reported 28 cancellations, including 21 arrivals and seven departures. Gatwick Airport saw 11 cancellations, Glasgow had five, and other services at Aberdeen, London City, Luton, and Manchester were also affected. In total, over 2,145 flights had been cancelled by Friday morning since the disruption began, impacting an estimated 330,000 passengers.
Rolfe, who earns over £1.4 million annually, has faced increasing pressure to resign. He was summoned for talks with Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander on Thursday and has been given one week to report on the cause of the latest technical failure. Alexander informed Parliament that she does not believe the glitch was "unavoidable" and has requested an independent review from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
Despite the calls for his resignation, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister stated that the government still has confidence in Rolfe, who has been tasked with investigating the incident. Alexander met with Rolfe to express "significant concerns" about the scale of the disruption.
The NATS system failure occurred at its Swanwick headquarters and affected its flight processing system. NATS confirmed that it was not the same issue that caused outages in 2023 and 2025. Rolfe apologized for the disruption and stated that a cyber-attack had been ruled out as a cause.
Airline industry groups have expressed strong dissatisfaction. Airlines UK, representing UK airlines, wrote to the Transport Secretary detailing "serious concern" and emphasizing that airlines should not bear the cost of failures they cannot control. The association noted that over 155,000 passengers had flights cancelled and more than 180,000 experienced delays.
Passengers have faced further complications, with baggage reclaim areas at major airports descending into chaos as travelers struggled to retrieve their luggage. The CAA has indicated that passengers are unlikely to be entitled to compensation, as the NATS issue is likely to be considered the result of "extraordinary circumstances."