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The CEO of Nats, the UK's main air traffic control service provider, faces increasing pressure to resign following recent disruptions affecting thousands of travelers. On Monday, a connectivity issue at Nats' Prestwick center in Scotland caused flight delays, though this was unrelated to a software fault from September 8 that led to over 2,000 cancellations. The Prime Minister expressed greater concern over the recurrence of such issues, while airline companies like EasyJet and Jet2 emphasized the need for improved system resilience and accountability.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-22,
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.
The head of air traffic control provider Nats is facing calls to resign after a second issue within two weeks, as the Prime Minister said Monday’s flight disruption caused “even greater concern”.
asserted
disruption → face → concern
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
“Well, these are clearly serious issues and they need to be fully investigated, and I know the Transport Secretary is taking these issues extremely seriously,” he replied.
asserted
he → need → issues
“Further issues today do cause even greater concern, but initially this is a matter for the Transport Secretary to get to the bottom of what is behind this and why there has been a recurrence.”
asserted
what → cause → this
EasyJet said the latest flight disruption “calls into question the resilience of Nats’ systems”, and Jet2 said customers and airlines need “action, accountability and proper resilience”.
asserted
customers → say → action
Nats said Monday’s incident was caused by a “connectivity issue” at its Prestwick centre in Scotland, which has since been fixed with its system now running at “full capacity”.
asserted
system → say → capacity
Flights were also delayed at airports in the US on Monday after construction workers cut a cable required for air traffic control, officials said.
asserted
officials → delay → control
An initial report by Nats into the disruption 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
Read More
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 → read → 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
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