Second Nats failure in a fortnight

A technical fault at National Air Traffic Services Prestwick control centre on Monday morning disrupted flights across Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England for the second time in two weeks.

Hundreds of flights cancelled

At least two hundred flights in and out of UK airports were expected to be cancelled by the end of Monday, according to analysts Cirium, after airlines including British Airways and easyJet made cancellations.

Fault fixed by mid-morning

Nats said the connectivity issue at Prestwick was fixed by about ten thirty am and that it was unrelated to the issue two weeks ago. Transport secretary Heidi Alexander posted that the technical issue had been resolved.

Bride and groom miss Vegas wedding

Among stranded passengers at Glasgow was bride-to-be Barbara Ann Stoddart, whose British Airways flight to Heathrow was cancelled. She said she was completely stressed out and feared missing her Saturday wedding in Las Vegas.

“I'm completely stressed out. I have still to go to the county court in Vegas to go and get the marriage licence, and I've got to be there three days in advance … If there's any hiccups I might not be getting married on Saturday now.”

Passengers unlikely to get compensation

The Civil Aviation Authority said disruption caused by the technical issue at Nats Prestwick is likely to be considered extraordinary circumstances, meaning passengers are unlikely to be entitled to compensation for delays or cancellations.

Airlines demand action and accountability

Ryanair said more than twenty five thousand passengers suffered disruption with more than one hundred forty flights delayed. Jet two's chief executive Steve Heapy said it was simply not good enough for critical national infrastructure to keep letting customers down.

“What customers and airlines need now is action, accountability and proper resilience, and we need it urgently.”

Calls for Nats chief to resign

Ryanair's chief operations officer Neal McMahon said Martin Rolfe should resign today, three days after Nats assured airlines and passengers it had introduced robust mitigation plans. Rolfe was paid one point four million pounds last year including bonuses.

“Enough is enough. Martin Rolfe should resign today.”

Third major incident in three years

Monday's fault was the third high-profile incident in just over three years. A radar-related issue in July twenty twenty five disrupted thousands of passengers and cancelled more than one hundred sixty flights. The biggest incident in August twenty twenty three affected more than seven hundred thousand passengers.

Government orders independent review

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander has commissioned the Civil Aviation Authority to conduct an independent review of Nats and check the findings of its initial report into the eight September breakdown. The prime minister said the government needed to urgently understand why the issue was not discovered and fixed before it caused chaos.