A breakdown of air traffic control at the start of the school summer break has resulted in holiday travel disruption for hundreds of thousands of passengers across the United Kingdom.
Due to “technical issues” after a 20-minute “radar failure,” London’s airspace had to be shut for more than an hour, a Department for Transport (DfT) source said. It is “resuming normal operations,” Nats, an air traffic control supplier, said, after experts from there “restored the system that was impacted.”
The technological issue, it said, was at its Hampshire Swanwick control facility.
More than 120 flights had already been scrapped by 7:30 p.m., and fears were growing that the disruption could last for days. 3,080 UK airport departures are scheduled to take place on Wednesday, or more than 577,000 seats, Curium, an aviation data firm, reported.
Ryanair has called for the resignation of Martin Rolfe, the Nats chief executive, claiming that “no lessons have been learnt” following the August 2023 outage when a technical failure at Nats disrupted more than 700,000 passengers.
The crisis cost around £100 million to airlines, airports, passengers, and other stakeholders. The Irish-based airline’s chief operating officer, Neal McMahon, said: “It is outrageous passengers are yet again being subjected to delays and disruption as a result of Martin Rolfe’s ongoing mismanagement of Nats.”
Ryanair pays Nats approximately €100 million (£86 million), he asserted, and demands more.
In the interest “to make sure the system is fit for purpose, and to rule out hostile action as a cause,” the Liberal Democrats demanded a government investigation of Wednesday’s air traffic control failure.
Sir Ed Davey also said: “The public ought to be able to have complete faith in such an important piece of national infrastructure.”
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander explained: “I am aware of a technical fault which affected Nats’ operations leading to travel disruption this afternoon.
“I have been told systems are now restored, but further disruption should be anticipated, and passengers should contact individual airports for advice.”
A Department for Transport spokesperson responded: “Although passengers should still check with individual airports for guidance, Nats have assured us that their systems are now up and running and flights are operating normally.
“We are in close contact with Nats to identify the cause of the technical problem and the implications on the resilience systems in operation.”
The second aircraft delay in two years for technical reasons has triggered demands for resignation by the boss of the UK’s air traffic control business.
