Stories

Mon, 21 Sep 2026

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 Repeated air traffic control failures leave us in worrying territory

The question is whether all of these incidents were isolated and unavoidable, or whether they point to something more systemic.
- On September 1st, a problem with a single aircraft's flight plan caused key systems at the Swanwick centre to break down, leading to cancellations and delays affecting 700,000 passengers. - Then on Monday, an issue with air traffic control at the Prestwick centre resulted in about 150 flights being cancelled and many other delays affecting tens of thousands of travellers.
*The incidents have raised concerns that there may be a systemic problem with Nats' systems, rather than isolated incidents.
*Airlines such as Easyjet and Jet2 have criticized Nats for repeated failures, saying it is "simply not good enough" for the air traffic control system to keep letting customers down.
*Nats has apologized for the latest incident, attributing it to a connectivity issue specific to the system used in Scotland, but denies that the two incidents are related.
*The government has asked the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to carry out an independent review of the first incident, which is expected to take six months to complete.
*Nats' chief executive Martin Rolfe has stated that he has no plans to resign and emphasized that obscure faults in complex systems can be difficult to prevent.