NATS STAFF SHORTAGES DELAY 6,000 RYANAIR PASSENGERS

UK ATC DELAYS UP OVER 80% VS LAST YEAR

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (Thurs, 13 Aug) demanded that NATS urgently explain why repeated UK ATC staff shortages delayed over 30 Ryanair flights and disrupted almost 6,000 passengers before breakfast this morning.

These avoidable staff shortages caused almost 8 hours of cumulative flight delays before 9am alone, once again exposing NATS’ failure to properly resource the UK ATC service during the peak summer travel season.

This latest staffing failure comes as UK ATC delays have already surged by over 80% this year. Airlines are paying record ATC charges for a service that is getting worse.

Ryanair calls on NATS to explain why every other business can manage staff absence, yet the UK’s monopoly air traffic provider repeatedly fails to do so during the busiest weeks of the year.

Ryanair’s Chief Operations Officer, Neal McMahon, said:

“It is beyond belief that over 30 Ryanair flights and almost 6,000 passengers have suffered delays before breakfast this morning because NATS cannot adequately staff its ATC operation. Before 9am alone, Ryanair suffered a cumulative of almost 8 hours of avoidable delays. These were not weather delays or technical failures, these were because NATS cannot manage the most basic of tasks – staff planning.

Once again, passengers are paying the price for NATS’ ongoing failure to properly staff the UK ATC service. This is particularly unacceptable during the peak summer travel season when airlines and passengers rightly expect a resilient and properly resourced ATC service.

Why does NATS continue to operate without sufficient staffing resilience? Every other business plans for staff absences.

Every other business maintains contingency cover. Why does NATS repeatedly fail to do either.

UK passengers deserve a reliable ATC service that is properly staffed and capable of handling peak summer traffic, not repeated delays caused by staffing failures that are entirely within NATS’ control.

Every summer NATS promises improvement. Every summer passengers get excuses “