Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has renewed his call for the resignation of Martin Rolfe, the chief executive of air traffic control (ATC) provider Nats.
O’Leary urged Rolfe to step down, claiming that “someone competent” should take over after flight disruptions at Gatwick Airport on Sunday due to “Nats staff shortages.”
O’Leary has been a vocal critic of Rolfe, particularly after the widespread disruptions at UK airports during last year’s August Bank Holiday Monday, which were caused by a Nats technical failure. ATC staffing issues have frequently led to flight delays at Gatwick.
According to data from the flight tracking website FlightRadar24, 49 departures and 51 arrivals were canceled on Sunday between 3 PM and midnight, impacting more than 16,000 passengers. Many other flights were delayed.
Nats has previously stated that it is “working in line” with a staffing plan agreed with Gatwick authorities when it took over ATC services at the airport in October 2022. This plan includes training additional controllers.
O’Leary expressed his frustration, saying, “UK Nats staff shortages caused multiple flight delays and cancellations at Gatwick Airport yesterday, Sunday, September 8.
This is just another in a series of blunders by UK Nats, once again disrupting flights and thousands of passengers at Gatwick. Airlines and passengers deserve better.”
He reiterated Ryanair’s demand for Rolfe to resign, stating, “Ryanair again calls on UK Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe to step down and allow someone competent to run an efficient UK ATC service, which airlines and passengers are entitled to expect.
If he refuses to go, then (new Transport Secretary) Louise Haigh should sack him.”
A Nats spokesperson, whose organization took over ATC services at Gatwick in October 2022, apologized for the disruption, saying, “We are very sorry for yesterday’s disruption, which was equally disappointing for our highly professional Gatwick team.
They are doing everything they can to provide a seamless 24/7 service. When Gatwick appointed us to improve their ATC performance and resilience, we all recognized that we had inherited a staffing shortage that would take time to resolve.”
The spokesperson explained that training air traffic controllers specifically for Gatwick’s operation takes up to two years, given that it is the world’s busiest single-runway airport.
“We have a full training pipeline, and this year we have more controllers than last year. However, we are still not as resilient as we need to be, which means that short-notice absences have an immediate impact on operations.”
A Gatwick spokeswoman noted that Nats had “successfully increased the number of air traffic controllers over recent months.”
She added, “So far this year, London Gatwick has safely handled more than 170,000 flights through Nats, a 4% increase over last year. Nats has been fully operational more than 99.6% of the time, working 24 hours a day.”
She also emphasized Gatwick’s daily traffic: “London Gatwick typically handles 800 or more flight movements per day using a single runway.
We will continue to collaborate closely with the Nats leadership team to provide good service for passengers and airlines. London Gatwick apologizes to any passengers who experienced disruption yesterday.”
Aviation analytics firm Cirium reported that last week’s surge in cancellations was due to a combination of bad weather and ATC restrictions.
A total of 427 departures from UK airports were canceled, accounting for 2% of all scheduled departures. This marked a threefold increase compared to the previous week.
Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, recorded the most cancellations with 165, followed by Gatwick with 87, and London City with 36.
