Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s combative chief executive, called for the sacking of the man in charge of the UK’s air traffic control today, in response to a highly critical report into the handling of problems with the system in August last year.
The UK's National Air Traffic Services plunged into chaos for three days during the peak summer travel season.
A single flight plan with a data glitch wiped out the automated computer system running the skies over the UK. It meant controllers, many of whom were working from home, had to manually input data.
Thousands of flights were cancelled, causing chaos for August Bank Holiday travellers, not least from London Stansted, Ryanair’s main hub in the capital, and its bases at Gatwick and Luton,
The Civil Aviation Authority published a “progress report” into an independent review of the incident today. It estimated that over 700,000 passengers were affected, with 300,000 suffering cancellations. Around 95,000 people were hit by “long delays of over 3 hours”. An on-call engineer took over an hour and a half to arrive on site and delays in calling the system’s manufacturer in compounded delays.
O’Leary said the detail out today “rubbishes many of the false claims made by NATS” in its own September 2023 report which he called a “whitewash”, adding: “The CAA report confirms (unbelievably) that NATS engineers were sitting at home in their pyjamas on the UK’s August bank holiday weekend”.
He called for “senior management changes”, saying: “Overpaid NATS CEO Martin Rolfe’s position is untenable … if he won’t quit, then Transport Secretary Mark Harper … should remove him.”
NATS, which is 49% owned by the taxpayer pointed to “an outstanding record under Martin’s leadership” and said:
“Incidents of the type that happened last August are extremely rare and unpredictable.
“Our leadership team's focus was to investigate and introduce measures to make sure this incident could not disrupt passengers again.”
It also said it “has cooperated fully with the Independent Panel appointed by the CAA to review the events of August 28 and its repercussions. We will continue to respond constructively to any further requests to support the Panel’s ongoing work.”
O’ Leary drew attention to the cost of air traffic control for the industry: “UK airlines and passengers are paying NATS among the highest air traffic control fees in Europe.
“In Ryanair’s case, we pay over £100m [per year] and we are entitled to expect an efficient well-run service, rather than mismanagement and incompetence we suffered on 28 August 2023 due to the NATS system collapse”.
The full report from the CAA is due later this year.
