NATS Technical Failures Spark Calls for CEO Resignation

A technical connectivity issue at the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) control centre in Prestwick, Scotland, caused widespread flight delays and cancellations across Scotland, Northern Ireland, and northern England on September 21, 2026. The disruption affected major hubs including Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Belfast, with aviation analytics firm Cirium reporting at least 227 cancellations. While NATS engineers resolved the issue by approximately 10:30 a.m., knock-on delays persisted throughout the day.

This incident occurred less than two weeks after a separate software fault on September 8 caused over 2,000 cancellations. Although NATS stated the Prestwick fault was unrelated to the previous outage, the recurrence drew sharp condemnation from the aviation industry. Ryanair reported that over 140 of its flights were delayed, affecting 25,000 passengers, and demanded the resignation of NATS Chief Executive Martin Rolfe. Jet2 Chief Executive Steve Heapy announced his airline would bill NATS for disruption costs, arguing that the UK's critical national infrastructure is unreliable.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander described the disruptions as "completely unacceptable" and confirmed that engineers had fixed the problem. The government has commissioned the Civil Aviation Authority to conduct a six-month independent review of the first September incident. Martin Rolfe has refused demands to resign, citing the extreme complexity of the systems involved. First Minister John Swinney and Prime Minister Andy Burnham both expressed concern over the lack of system resilience.