Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has demanded a detailed report within seven days on the technical failure that led to the cancellation of approximately 2,000 flights. The head of National Air Traffic Services (NATS), Martin Rolfe, met with Alexander on Wednesday to discuss the incident and has been tasked with providing the report by the following Wednesday.
The IT meltdown caused chaos for an estimated 330,000 passengers, with 2,145 flights affected across Tuesday and Wednesday. Rolfe, who has reportedly received £2.2 million in bonuses and incentive payments over the last three years, faces increasing pressure to resign amid criticism of NATS's handling of the crisis.
Alexander stated that she met with Rolfe within 24 hours of the incident and requested the report. She has also asked the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) chief executive, Rob Bishton, to conduct an independent review, expected within six months. Alexander emphasized the need to understand the cause of the failure, the performance of backup systems, and to examine planned IT upgrades. She noted that a previous incident in 2023 resulted in 34 recommendations, all of which were reportedly implemented.
This latest disruption follows two significant NATS failures in 2023 and 2025. In July of the previous year, a radar-related issue caused a failure that disrupted thousands of passengers and led to over 160 flight cancellations. In August 2023, a technical glitch while processing a flight plan grounded flights at UK airports, impacting more than 700,000 passengers.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary has been vocal in his criticism, calling Rolfe's position "untenable" and accusing the government of attempting to protect him. O'Leary claimed that NATS informed his airline the outage was caused by a rogue flight plan, the same issue that led to the 2023 disruption, and accused Rolfe of lying about the cause to protect himself. NATS's investigation into the 2023 outage attributed it to a rare event involving identically named waypoints in a flight plan, which triggered a fail-safe mode in both the primary and backup systems. Ryanair is currently suing NATS for over £7 million in relation to the 2023 incident.
Other industry figures have expressed concern, though not necessarily calling for Rolfe's resignation. Garry Wilson, chief executive of easyJet holidays, described the events as "an absolute pain" but highlighted a more fundamental question regarding infrastructure investment. Neil Swanson, managing director of Tui UK & Ireland, also stressed the need for "proper investment" and "action" from NATS.
Whitehall sources have questioned Rolfe's continued tenure given the "litany of failure," with one stating that in "no other role could you oversee such a litany of failure and survive."
Transport minister Keir Mather commented that the disruption raises "serious questions about contingency planning and resilience planning at our airports."
NATS has issued an apology to passengers and airlines, with Rolfe stating he takes "full responsibility." The company confirmed an investigation into the recent incident is underway and will be reported to the Transport Secretary and CAA. The CAA has indicated that passengers are unlikely to be entitled to compensation for delays and cancellations caused by the incident, classifying it as "extraordinary circumstances."
Flight disruptions had eased by Thursday, with major airports like Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, and Stansted reporting normal operations. Data firm Cirium indicated that a small percentage of scheduled flights were still affected on Thursday.