TRANSPORT SECRETARY SAYS THIRD COLLAPSE WAS “COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE” BUT FAILS TO FIRE ROLFE

Ryanair, the UK’s No.1 passenger airline today (Fri 18 Sept) called on failed NATS CEO, Martin Rolfe, to take responsibility and resign, or failing that, for Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, to take immediate action and dismiss him. On 8^th Sept, the NATS ATC system collapsed for the third time in 4 years under Martin Rolfe’s leadership. Heidi Alexander calls this latest collapse “completely unacceptable,” but fails to take any action. Tasking the CAA to conduct an independent review is just kicking this “political can” down the road.

CEO Martin Rolfe promised that he would “take responsibility” for this latest failure. Today’s cover-up report shows that his system has again failed, and his excuses that “the software ate my homework” are completely unacceptable.

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

“After three UK ATC system collapses in the last 4 years, Martin Rolfe has run out of excuses. The “software ate my homework” is not an acceptable explanation for the hundreds of thousands of passengers whose flights were cancelled and/or inordinately delayed on 8^th Sept last. This 3^rd system collapse comes on top of the NATS UK radar collapse in July 2025, and the NATS fake flight plan collapse in Aug 2023. How many times must the UK ATC system collapse before Martin Rolfe accepts responsibility and resigns, or before Heidi Alexander takes effective action, and replaces him with someone competent to run UK ATC.

Over the last 4 years, the UK ATC system has suffered 3 major collapses. No other ATC systems in Ireland, France, Spain, Germany, Italy etc have suffered any such collapses. They have suffered strikes and short staffing, but no system collapses. In the UK, under their vastly overpaid CEO Martin Rolfe, the UK ATC system has collapsed not once, not twice, but three times in the last 4 years. It is time for Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander to take effective action, dismiss Martin Rolfe, and replace him with someone competent who can provide an effective NATS service, and when things go wrong, deliver a backup system that actually works.

Martin Rolfe promised the Houses of Parliament that the first Aug 2023 collapse was a “once in a lifetime” event. We have now had three such collapses in 4 years, so it is time for this overpaid failure to take responsibility and resign .”

ENDS