Air traffic controllers faced criticism after another disruption within two weeks, affecting over 140 Ryanair flights and more than 25,000 passengers. The issue was caused by a connectivity problem at Nats’ Prestwick center in Scotland, leading to delays and cancellations at airports like Edinburgh, Belfast, Manchester, and Luton. Industry leaders called for improved resilience and accountability from the air traffic control provider, citing it as critical national infrastructure.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-21,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
On Monday, Nats, Britain's air traffic control provider, faced renewed criticism after a "connectivity issue" at its Prestwick center in Scotland caused delays and disruptions to flights across Scotland and northern England. This incident is the second major disruption within two weeks, following a software fault on September 8 that canceled over 2,000 flights and affected hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Ryanair estimated that more than 25,000 of its passengers were impacted by Monday's delays, with around 140 flights delayed. The company's chief operations officer, Neal McMahon, called for the resignation of Nats CEO Martin Rolfe, accusing him of presiding over repeated system failures and passenger disruption.
EasyJet also criticized the resilience of Nats' systems, stating that the latest incident "calls into question" their reliability. Meanwhile, Airlines UK CEO Tim Alderslade emphasized the need for ATC infrastructure to be resilient enough to keep people moving, calling the recent failure a significant issue affecting both passengers and airlines.
Despite growing calls for Rolfe's resignation, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak did not publicly back Rolfe but stated that it was initially up to the Transport Secretary to investigate the cause of these recurring issues.
Written for “Air Traffic Control Issues” on 2026-10-05,
grounded in this article and the 11 other(s) covering the same event.
Passengers and airlines “deserve better” an aviation industry body has said, as air traffic controllers came under fire after a second issue within two weeks caused flight disruption.
asserted
issue → deserve → disruption
The company said the issue was unrelated to a software fault at Nats on September 8, which caused more than 2,000 flights to be cancelled, disrupting hundreds of thousands of passengers.
asserted
flights → say → passengers
According to Ryanair, more than 25,000 of its passengers were expected to be disrupted and more than 140 of its flights had been delayed on Monday.
uncertain
140 → accord → Monday
Chief operations officer for Ryanair Neal McMahon said: “Martin Rolfe has presided over repeated system failures, repeated passenger disruption and repeated failures to deliver an effective back-up system.
“Enough is enough.
“Martin Rolfe should resign today.”
asserted
Rolfe → say → system
Tim Alderslade, chief executive of industry body Airlines UK, said ATC was “critical national infrastructure” which “must be resilient enough to keep people moving”.
asserted
which → say → people
“Yet another Nats failure is causing delays and disruption for passengers and airlines alike, and comes just days after its report into the most recent major outage,” he said.
asserted
he → cause → outage
“Passengers and airlines deserve better and the independent CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) report, together with the forthcoming Civil Aviation Bill, must address the underlying weaknesses in the system so that these failures stop happening,” he added.
asserted
he → deserve → system
EasyJet said: “This, once again, calls into question the resilience of Nats’ systems and demonstrates the need for firm actions to prevent these repeated failures.”
asserted
This → say → failures
Jet2 chief executive Steve Heapy said it was “simply not good enough for this critical national infrastructure to keep letting customers down.”
asserted
infrastructure → say → customers
Read More
“Customers work hard to look forward to their holidays and airlines work hard to deliver those holidays,” he said.
asserted
he → read → holidays
“They should not be repeatedly exposed to delays and disruption because the UK’s air traffic control systems cannot be relied upon.
asserted
systems → expose → delays
“What customers and airlines need now is action, accountability and proper resilience, and we need it urgently.”
asserted
we → need → it
He added: “Make no mistake, we are counting the cost of this disruption and will be sending another bill to Nats.”
asserted
we → add → Nats
The ATC provider said airports south of Manchester had been “broadly unaffected” on Monday, but that flights heading north and departing from Scottish airports had been experiencing some delays.
asserted
flights → say → delays
Airports in Edinburgh, Belfast and Manchester were registering delayed flights, and Luton Airport said domestic flights had been disrupted.
asserted
flights → register → flights
“Passengers should check with their airlines.
asserted
Passengers → check → airlines
We apologise for the disruption,” Nats said.
asserted
Nats → apologise → disruption
The company said Monday’s incident had been caused by a “connectivity issue” at its Prestwick centre in Scotland, which has since been fixed.
asserted
which → say → Scotland
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said in a post on X that engineers had “fixed the problem and systems are resuming”, but some delays may continue during the reset.
“I know this will be deeply frustrating for passengers after the previous issue,” she said.
uncertain
she → say → issue
During an unrelated visit to Edinburgh Airport, Scottish First Minister John Swinney said the disruption was “very regrettable”.
asserted
disruption → say → Airport
He told the Press Association: “I’m glad the issues are now resolved and that flights are able to take their normal course, but it demonstrates of all organisations, particularly the air traffic control system, having resilience, being able to withstand issues in the systems, so that people can rely on the services that are being provided,”
asserted
that → tell → services
A Nats spokesperson said: “The issue in our Prestwick centre is now fixed.
“
asserted
issue → say → centre
We are working with airports and airlines to safely lift air traffic regulations as quickly as we can to minimise any further disruption.
asserted
we → work → disruption
“Passengers should still check the status of their flight with their airline.
asserted
Passengers → check → airline
We apologise for the disruption.”
asserted
We → apologise → disruption
An initial report by Nats into the flight chaos on September 8 found it was caused by a software defect and not by “any incorrect actions”.
asserted
it → find → actions
The fault happened in “the space of a millisecond”, the report said.
asserted
report → happen → millisecond
Mr Rolfe previously apologised for the incident earlier this month, for which he said he took “full responsibility”.
asserted
he → apologise → responsibility
Last July a “radar-related issue” caused an air traffic control failure which disrupted thousands of passengers and forced the cancellation of more than 160 flights.
asserted
which → relate → flights
In August 2023, more than 700,000 passengers suffered disruption when flights were grounded at UK airports when Nats experienced a technical glitch while processing a flight plan.
asserted
Nats → suffer → plan
Nats is the UK’s leading provider of air traffic control services and handles about 2.5 million flights per year.
asserted
Nats → lead → year
The Aporia
