Ryanair says over 1,000 September flights cancelled, partly blaming UK air traffic control failures

Ryanair said it cancelled more than 1,000 flights in September, partly blaming the recent "collapse" of Britain's air traffic control system. 1 2 The Irish carrier said the cancellations stemmed from two air traffic control issues within a fortnight of each other, ATC strikes in Belgium, and disruption across Europe from volcanic ash clouds from Mount Etna eruptions. 1 2 The most recent UK incident was a "connectivity issue" at the National Air Traffic Services (Nats) Prestwick centre in Scotland, unrelated to an ATC software fault on 8 September that caused widespread flight chaos. 1 2

Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe has faced pressure to step down after the failures, which led to thousands of cancellations across the industry and affected hundreds of thousands of passengers; Ryanair is among those calling for his resignation. 1 2 Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has called a meeting with Nats chairman Sir Warren East in the coming weeks to discuss the problems. 1 2 On 21 September, Ryanair chief operations officer Neal McMahon said Rolfe "has presided over repeated system failures" and "should resign today". 2

easyJet said the latest disruption "calls into question the resilience of Nats' systems", Jet2 called for "action, accountability and proper resilience", and Airlines UK chief executive Tim Alderslade said ATC is "critical national infrastructure" and pointed to a CAA report and the forthcoming Civil Aviation Bill. 2 Despite the cancellations, Ryanair's traffic figures showed it operated over 111,700 flights and carried 20.1 million passengers in September, up 4% year on year. 1 2 Wizz Air reported a 24% rise in passengers to 7.78 million with capacity up 25.3%, but said it would cut its flight programme by 5% over the second half of 2026 because of Iran war pressures on travel and soaring fuel costs. 1