# Air traffic control boss says he was ‘most disliked person in the UK’ after flight chaos

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/air-traffic-control-boss-says-he-was-most-disliked-person-in-the-uk-after-flight-chaos/
- Published: 2026-11-11T13:35:52+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-11T14:03:57+00:00
- Original publisher: The Guardian (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/nov/11/air-traffic-control-nats-martin-rolfe-outages-ryanair
- Topics: Business, Companies, Culture, Software, Technology, Travel, UK, World

## Key points

- Two September failures disrupted flights across the UK.
- Airlines called for Nats chief Martin Rolfe to resign.
- A regulator’s findings are expected in early 2027.

## Summary

Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe said he became “the most disliked person in the UK” after two air traffic control failures in September disrupted flights. Airlines, led by Ryanair, called for him to resign, while Rolfe said he had not considered stepping down and had “quite enjoyed” ignoring repeated demands from Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary.

The first outage, on 8 September, affected a day when Nats expected to handle about 8,000 flights; 6,000 flew, many after long delays, and airlines said the disruption cost tens of millions of pounds. A second fault at Prestwick on 21 September led to more than 200 cancellations. Rolfe said the specific faults had been fixed but would not rule out future outages; a Civil Aviation Authority review is due to report to Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander in early 2027.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.