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.
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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.
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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.”
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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”.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.”
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infrastructure → say → customers
“Customers work hard to look forward to their holidays and airlines work hard to deliver those holidays,” he said.
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he → work → holidays
“They should not be repeatedly exposed to delays and disruption because the UK’s air traffic control systems cannot be relied upon.
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systems → expose → delays
“What customers and airlines need now is action, accountability and proper resilience, and we need it urgently.”
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we → need → it
He added: “Make no mistake, we are counting the cost of this disruption and will be sending another bill to Nats.”
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we → add → Nats
The managing director of Wizz Air UK said Nats’ insistence that the two September issues were unrelated does not offer reassurance.
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issues → say → reassurance
Yvonne Moynihan said: “Last week, a Nats system failure brought widespread disruption to the south of the UK.
“Today, another failure has affected the north.
“
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failure → say → north
Passengers and airlines are entitled to ask: which part of the country will be next?
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part → entitle → country
“Nats claims the two incidents are unrelated.
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incidents → claim → ?
“Far from offering reassurance, this raises an even more serious question: how many other hidden weaknesses remain within its systems?”
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weaknesses → offer → systems
Ms Moynihan said “repeated apologies are no longer enough”, adding: “Nats must urgently fix these failures, demonstrate that robust back-up systems are in place and provide full transparency about how repeated outages can occur within such a short period.”
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outages → say → period
British Airways said it was “disappointing” that some customers may experience disruption after “yet another technical fault with Nats”.
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customers → say → Nats
Bride-to-be Barbara Ann Stoddart said she was “completely stressed out” after her journey to her Las Vegas wedding was disrupted.
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journey → say → wedding
Travelling with groom Andrew Lithgow, their three children, best man and a friend, the group’s flight from Glasgow to Heathrow was cancelled on Monday, meaning they will miss their connection.
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they → travel → connection
They have now been booked on to a flight for late afternoon on Tuesday.
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They → book → Tuesday
She said: “I’m completely stressed out.
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I → say → ?
This has been planned for about a year-and-a-half, going away to get married, and the flight has now been cancelled, so
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flight → plan → year
we’re going
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we → go → ?
miss a full day as we won’t be there till tomorrow night
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we → miss → night
“I have still to go to the county court in Vegas to go and get the marriage licence, and I’ve got to be there three days in advance.
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I → have → advance
“The wedding is on Saturday but if there’s any hiccups I might not be getting married on Saturday now.”
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I → ’ → Saturday
Ms Stoddart added: “The wedding chapel and everything is already booked and paid for as well, and it’s on the Saturday, so we can’t rearrange it.”
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we → add → it
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.
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flights → say → delays
Airports in Edinburgh, Belfast and Manchester were registering delayed flights, and Luton Airport said domestic flights had been disrupted.
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flights → register → flights
“Passengers should check with their airlines.
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Passengers → check → airlines
We apologise for the disruption,” Nats said.
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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.
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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.
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she → say → issue
During an unrelated visit to Edinburgh Airport, Scottish First Minister John Swinney said the disruption was “very regrettable”.
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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,”
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that → tell → services
A Nats spokesperson said: “The issue in our Prestwick centre is now fixed.
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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.
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we → work → disruption
…and 8 more, not listed.
The Aporia
