Ryanair and Wizz Air have called for reform of Britain’s air traffic control provider after a technical outage at NATS disrupted more than 1,000 flights across the UK on 8 September. The fault hit NATS’ flight data processing system, forcing cancellations and delays at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted, Edinburgh and Bristol, while knock-on disruption continued into the following day.
NATS resolved the issue the same day and operations returned to normal, but airlines were left dealing with aircraft and crews out of position. Ryanair said about 150,000 passengers were affected and more than 200 of its flights were cancelled, and also urged chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign. Wizz Air joined the criticism and pressed for changes to improve reliability across the UK network.
The outage has renewed scrutiny of the resilience of UK aviation infrastructure after previous ATC failures. With disruption stretching beyond the original technical fix, carriers faced continuing schedule pressure, extra costs and operational recovery work at major hubs and regional airports.