Ryanair, the UK’s No.1 low fares airline, today (Tues, 13 Jan) called on NATS CEO, Martin Rolfe, to resign following yet another NATS ATC system failure – this time at Birmingham Airport on Sun (11 Jan) – which caused several diversions and delays of up to 4 hours for 2,000 Ryanair passengers.

This latest outage is yet another example of NATS’ continued mismanagement. UK airspace users are paying higher charges for a declining service, while passengers are subjected to repeated and entirely avoidable delays. Martin Rolfe must immediately fix the UK’s broken ATC service, or step aside and let someone else do the job.

Ryanair’s Jade Kirwan said:

“It is unacceptable that 2,000 Ryanair passengers were made suffer delays of up to 4 hours, as well as several diversions, on Sunday (11 Jan), due to yet another NATS ATC system failure – this time at Birmingham Airport. There is a clear pattern of repeated NATS mismanagement and NATS disruption – all of which is happening under the watch of NATS CEO, Martin Rolfe. This level of incompetence would not be tolerated in any other critical infrastructure. Martin Rolfe is clearly out of his depth and should resign immediately, and allow someone else to fix NATS’ failing systems and deliver the reliable ATC service that Ryanair passengers deserve.”