Nats boss to meet UK transport secretary as second day of flight chaos takes cancellations past 1,300 – business live
Developing story first seen 2 hours ago
The head of Nats, Martin Rolfe, is due to meet transport secretary Heidi Alexander on Wednesday morning as UK flight disruption entered a second day, with cancellations passing 1,300. New figures show the scale of the ongoing fallout: by 6am, 246 flights had been cancelled at Heathrow and 33 at Gatwick, according to FlightRadar, with further delays and cancellations expected at Manchester and Stansted as airlines work through the knock-on effects. The meeting comes just before Alexander addresses MPs on the Civil Aviation Bill's second reading in the Commons.
Nats, which provides air traffic control to 15 UK airports, blamed a "technical issue" in its flight processing system that began at around 1pm on Tuesday and took nearly four hours to fix, by which point most scheduled departures had yet to take off; the fault later spread to affect incoming flights across much of southern England. It is Britain's third major air traffic control stoppage in just over three years. Rolfe said he "always accepts full responsibility" as CEO of "a piece of critical infrastructure" but did not directly address his position, saying his focus was on resolving the issue and supporting airlines, airports and passengers, while Nats warned the "very complex recovery" would take time.
- Nats boss Rolfe to meet transport secretary as cancellations top 1,300
- Heathrow saw 246 cancellations, Gatwick 33, by 6am Wednesday
- UK's third major air traffic control stoppage in three years
New here? Start with this
Air traffic control in the UK is handled by a single organisation, Nats, which manages the skies for 15 airports including Heathrow and Gatwick. When its systems fail, flights across the country can be delayed or cancelled, since planes cannot safely take off or land without proper coordination. A fault in Nats' flight processing system on Tuesday triggered widespread disruption that has now stretched into a second day, with well over a thousand flights cancelled.
This is not the first time this has happened. It is the third major breakdown at Nats in a little over three years, prompting renewed questions about the reliability of the system that underpins UK aviation and about accountability at the organisation, led by chief executive Martin Rolfe. The government, represented by transport secretary Heidi Alexander, oversees aviation policy and regulation, which is why a meeting between the two has drawn attention.
The disruption matters because it affects hundreds of thousands of passengers, airlines' schedules and airports' operations well beyond the original fault, since aircraft and crews often end up out of position once flights are cancelled or delayed. It also comes as parliament considers new aviation legislation, adding a political dimension to a story that is otherwise about the resilience of critical transport infrastructure.
Full account
Air traffic chaos across the UK stretched into a second day on Wednesday after a technical fault at National Air Traffic Services (Nats) forced more than 1,300 flight cancellations, with tens of thousands of passengers affected. Nats, which provides air traffic control for 15 UK airports, reported a problem with its flight processing system that began at around 1pm on Tuesday. Although the company said the fault itself was resolved roughly four hours later, the knock-on disruption continued to ripple through the network into Wednesday morning, hitting departures and, later, arrivals across much of southern England. Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted and Birmingham were among the airports worst affected, with tracking data cited by outlets suggesting 246 cancellations at Heathrow and 33 at Gatwick by 6am on Wednesday alone.
The fallout for passengers and airlines was severe. British Airways said it had cancelled or diverted more than 100 flights, affecting tens of thousands of customers, while Ryanair put the number of its own passengers hit by the disruption at over 65,000. Some travellers faced extraordinary delays: one flight from Heathrow to New York reportedly sat on the runway for as long as nine hours before its passengers could disembark. With crew and aircraft left out of position, airlines warned that the disruption—and the scramble to rebook stranded holidaymakers, pilots and cabin crew—could continue for several days.
The episode has intensified scrutiny of Nats and its chief executive, Martin Rolfe, who earns a reported £1.5m a year and was due to meet the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, on Wednesday morning, shortly before she opened the second reading of the Civil Aviation Bill in the Commons. Asked whether he was considering resigning, Rolfe said he accepted full responsibility as head of a piece of critical national infrastructure, but framed his priority as restoring normal operations and supporting airlines, airports and passengers rather than his own position. Nats itself described the recovery as complex and said it would take time for the wider aviation network to return to normal. The breakdown was described as the third major stoppage attributable to Nats in just over three years.
Reaction from airlines and politicians was considerably sharper than Nats' own statement. Ryanair's chief operating officer, Neal McMahon, publicly called for Rolfe to be replaced, branding him an “overpaid failure” and urging the government, the Civil Aviation Authority and the Nats board to appoint new leadership capable of preventing repeated failures. Wizz Air said it was “extremely disappointed” by yet another outage and argued Nats was “not fit for purpose” in its current form, while the Conservative shadow transport spokesman, Greg Smith, questioned why Britain kept struggling to keep its airspace running smoothly and demanded clarity on what had gone wrong and how resilience would be improved. Nats is 49% government-owned, a fact several critics highlighted in pressing ministers to act.
Where outlets differ
The Guardian's live blog centres on the process story: the Rolfe–Alexander meeting, its timing alongside the Civil Aviation Bill's Commons debate, precise FlightRadar cancellation counts, and Rolfe's own measured quotes about accepting responsibility without confirming or denying he might quit.
The Daily Mail leads with the political and industry backlash, giving prominent space to explicit resignation calls from Ryanair's Neal McMahon (who calls Rolfe an 'overpaid failure') and criticism from Wizz Air and a Conservative frontbencher, and includes more human-interest detail such as the nine-hour runway wait and terminal queue scenes.
The two sources give different topline cancellation figures — the Guardian cites 'more than 1,300' flights, while the Mail cites 'more than 1,000' departures and arrivals — likely reflecting different snapshot times as the total climbed.
The Mail specifies Rolfe's £1.5m salary and Nats' 49% government ownership as pointed context for the resignation calls; the Guardian extract does not mention his pay and focuses instead on Nats being 'critical infrastructure'.
More coverage
- Daily Mail — Flight chaos after tech failure is expected to last for DAYS after more than 1,000 jets were grounded: Calls for air traffic boss to quit grow as he is set to meet Transport Secretary this morning
- Daily Mail — Under-fire Nats boss 'rules out' cyber attack as cause of air traffic control meltdown – and says there will be 'thorough investigation' into issue that sparked flight chaos