OVER 65,000 RYANAIR PASSENGERS DELAYED UP TO 8 HOURS AND OVER 50 FLIGHT CANCELLATIONS AS NATS ATC SYSTEM FAILS YET AGAIN

Ryanair, Europe’s No.1 airline, today (Tues, 8 Sept) called on overpaid failing NATS CEO, Martin Rolfe, to quit after yet another UK ATC system failure caused widespread delays and cancellations across UK airspace today (8 Sept), disrupting over 65,000 Ryanair passengers and cancelling over 50 scheduled flights.

Just three years after NATS’ catastrophic August 2023 system collapse, UK passengers are once again paying the price for NATS’ failure to deliver a reliable ATC service. At the same time, UK ATC charges – which are paid by airlines – have soared 28% since 2022. Despite multiple investigations, reviews, promises and assurances that lessons had been learned, NATS’ failures continue, as evidenced by today’s UK ATC system failure today (8 Sept).

Ryanair COO, Neal McMahon, said:

“How many more failures do passengers have to suffer before overpaid failure NATS CEO, Martin Rolfe, accepts responsibility for his repeated mismanagement and resigns? Over three years after NATS’ catastrophic 2023 system meltdown, it’s clear that nothing has changed, with UK passengers once again suffering avoidable ATC delays of up to 8 hours today due a critical NATS ATC system failing. Families travelling on holiday, people travelling for work and thousands of visitors to the UK have once again paid the price for NATS’ abhorrent failure.

The astonishing part is that NATS continues to charge airlines and passengers more each year while delivering a worse service. Following the 2023 collapse, we were told lessons would be learned. We were told “resilience would improve”. We were told the systems had been fixed. Yet here we are again. This is a pattern of repeated failure with Rolfe in charge getting paid over £1.4m in bonuses p.a. while he delivers failure after failure.

The UK Government, the CAA and the NATS Board must stop making excuses for repeated NATS failures and appoint a new leader capable of running the UK ATC system without repeated failures. Its time for overpaid failure Martin Rolfe to go.”

ENDS