4 CANCELATIONS & 2,000 PASSENGERS DELAYED OVER 3 HOURS

Ryanair, the UK’s No.1 low fares airline, today (Tues, 23 Jun) called on NATS CEO, Martin Rolfe, to resign following yet another ATC system failure, this time at Bristol Airport on Mon (22 Jun), which caused multiple diversions and delays of over 3 hours for more than 2,000 Ryanair passengers.

This latest outage once again raises serious questions about the resilience of NATS’ systems. It is inexplicable that both the primary and back-up ATC systems failed at a major UK airport. Passengers and families should be able to rely on backup systems working, particularly for critical national infrastructure such as air traffic control.

This incident is the latest in a pattern of repeated NATS failures and highlights ongoing mismanagement. UK airspace users continue to pay higher charges for a declining level of service, while passengers are subjected to disruption because NATS don’t invest in back-up systems that work when needed.

Ryanair’s Neal McMahon said:

“It is unacceptable that 4 Ryanair flights were cancelled and 2,000 Ryanair passengers were forced to endure delays of over 3 hours, along with multiple diversions, due to yet another NATS ATC system failure at Bristol Airport on Mon (22 Jun).

It is simply inexplicable that both the primary and back-up ATC systems failed when they were needed. Despite the hugely critical independent CAA review of NATS resilience in 2024, there has been no improvement to resilience by NATS and families are the ones to suffer. This level of failure would not be tolerated in any other senior role in the UK and it’s time that CEO Martin Rolfe resigns and let’s someone competent do the job.”