A second NATS technical failure in two weeks has triggered fresh cancellations, airline criticism and renewed questions over the resilience of Britain’s air traffic system…reports Asian Lite News Desk
UK airlines have called for action to strengthen air traffic control resilience after a second NATS technical failure in less than two weeks caused fresh flight cancellations and delays across the country.
The latest disruption began early on Monday, 21 September, when National Air Traffic Services (NATS) reported a connectivity problem at its Prestwick control centre in Scotland. Traffic restrictions were introduced while engineers investigated the fault, affecting flights across Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England.
NATS said the issue had been fixed and that its systems were operating at full capacity, but warned that disruption would continue as airlines worked to recover delayed services and reposition aircraft and crews.
The organisation stressed that Monday’s problem was separate from the software defect at its Swanwick centre earlier this month, which caused widespread disruption and around 2,000 flight cancellations.
More than 200 flights were cancelled during Monday’s disruption, according to aviation data, with Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast among the airports affected. London Gatwick and London City also reported disruption as the effects spread through airline schedules.
EasyJet said the latest incident again raised questions about the resilience of the UK’s air traffic control system. Wizz Air described the repeated problems as creating a wider confidence issue around NATS, while Ryanair renewed its call for NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe to step down.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the recurrence was a serious concern and that the government needed to establish why further technical problems had occurred.
NATS said the issue had been fixed and that its systems were operating at full capacity, but warned that disruption would continue as airlines worked to recover delayed services and reposition aircraft and crews.
Asked whether the NATS chief should be removed, Burnham said the incidents were “clearly serious issues” that needed to be fully investigated. He said Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander was taking the matter “extremely seriously” and needed to establish why there had been a recurrence.
The latest failure came less than a fortnight after the Swanwick outage, which NATS later said had been caused by a software defect in part of its flight-data system. The failure triggered restrictions on the number of aircraft that could be handled and led to major disruption at airports around the UK.
The government has ordered an independent review of the resilience of the UK’s air traffic control system. The Civil Aviation Authority is expected to publish its findings within six months.
The CAA said passengers affected by Monday’s incident were unlikely to qualify for compensation because the technical failure was likely to fall under the “extraordinary circumstances” provision of UK passenger-rights rules. Airlines must still provide appropriate care and assistance to affected passengers.
The repeated outages have renewed scrutiny of the resilience of critical aviation infrastructure. A previous independent review into the major NATS failure in August 2023 found that more than 700,000 passengers were affected and estimated the overall cost to airlines and passengers at between £75 million and £100 million.
NATS said it had apologised to passengers for the latest disruption and was working with airlines to restore normal operations.
The organisation said passengers should continue checking directly with their airlines for the latest information on individual flights.
