UK airport chaos live updates: Ryanair boss calls for air traffic chief to resign over Gatwick flight delays
Thousands of passengers flying to and from the UK have had their flights cancelled after a combination of bad weather and air-traffic control staff shortages
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Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has issued fresh calls for the resignation of the chief executive of air traffic control (ATC) provider Nats.
Mr O’Leary urged Martin Rolfe to step down and “allow someone competent” to take over after flights were disrupted at Gatwick Airport on Sunday due to “Nats staff shortages”.
Analysis of data from flight tracking website FlightRadar24 shows 49 departures and 51 arrivals were cancelled on Sunday between 3pm and midnight, affecting more than 16,000 passengers.
“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,” Mr O’Leary said.
“If he won’t go, then (new Transport Secretary) Louise Haigh should sack him.”
Around 3,500 passengers expecting to fly to or from London Gatwick on 20 flights on Monday morning have been grounded. Most are booked on easyJet, which cancelled its first flight of the day, to Ibiza, and six others including links to Naples and Nice.
Passengers were told the cause was “air-traffic control restrictions” outside the airline’s control.
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Ryanair says one in seven flights this morning delayed due to air-traffic control staff shortage
Ryanair, Europe’s biggest budget airline, has once again railed against “repeated ATC [air-traffic control] staff shortages across Europe”.
The carrier “apologised to its passengers for the excessive flight delays caused by European ATC staff shortages today, Monday 9 September, which is affecting all European airlines.
“ATC services, which have had the benefit of no French ATC strike disruption this summer, continue to underperform (despite flight volumes being 5 per cent behind 2019 levels) with repeated ‘staff shortages’.
“On Monday 09 Sep, 14 per cent of Ryanair’s first wave departures (83 of 578 aircraft) were delayed due to ATC ‘staff shortages’. These repeated flight delays due to ATC mismanagement are unacceptable.
“We apologise to our passengers for these repeated ATC flight delays which are deeply regrettable but beyond Ryanair’s control.”
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Gatwick says it will work closely with Nats to provide passengers and airlines with a good service
A Gatwick spokeswoman said Nats has “successfully increased the number of air traffic controllers over recent months”.
She went on: “So far this year, London Gatwick has safely handled more than 170,000 flights through Nats, a 4% increase on last year.
“The Nats service has been fully available more than 99.6% of the time, operating 24 hours a day.
“London Gatwick typically has 800 or more flight movements a day from a single runway.
“We will continue to work closely with the Nats leadership team to provide passengers and airlines with a good service.
“London Gatwick would like to apologise to any passengers who experienced disruption yesterday.”
British Airways blames air-traffic control restrictions and bad weather for weekend cancellations
After cancelling more than 250 flights between Friday and Monday – affecting around 40,000 passengers – British Airways has issued a statement pinning responsibility on air-traffic control problems across Europe.
A BA spokesperson said: “We operate hundreds of flights every day without disruption, successfully getting tens of thousands of our customers to where they need to be.
“Along with other airlines, we’ve had to make some small adjustments to our schedule because of air traffic control restrictions caused by adverse weather.
“Whilst the vast majority of our customers will be unaffected, we apologise for any inconvenience caused and our teams are working hard to help get journeys back on track.”
Under passengers’ rights rules, British Airways must provide alternative flights as soon as possible and, if necessary, hotel rooms.
Simon Calder explains what passengers need to know when their flight is cancelled
Writing in his latest The Man Who Pays His Way column, travel correspondent Simon Calder explains what passengers need to know when their flight is cancelled: basically, if you need to get to your destination quickly, you may need to pay for a new flight and reclaim later.
While under European air passengers’ rights rules airlines are supposed to buy a new flight if necessary, this often does not happen.
The reason comes down to two factors: complexity and complacency.
Complexity: the two most obvious alternatives to British Airways are easyJet and Ryanair. BA can delve into the reservations systems for “legacy” carriers such as KLM and Lufthansa and find replacement flights for stranded passengers, often involving connections in Amsterdam, Frankfurt or Munich. But neither of the big low-cost airlines has any interest in opening up their inventory to other carriers – figuring, probably correctly, that they will Hoover up distressed passengers anyway.
- British Airways could in theory set up an operation to find alternative flights manually for stranded travellers. But since during this dose of disruption average “hold times” on the phone lines were close to an hour, the chances of BA funding hundreds more staff to deal with the odd bout of disruption looks slim.
- Complacency: All the UK airlines know that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is unlikely to take action if they fail in their obligation to provide the “best fit” replacement for a cancelled flight. The CAA has robustly rapped the knuckles of Wizz Air, but that was for failing to deal properly with the “pay and reclaim” process – leaving some passengers many hundreds of pounds out of pocket. But the aviation regulator looks content to allow airlines to shrug off their duty of care, so long as they eventually stump up for the costs of self-service rescue.
What flights have been delayed or cancelled?
Around 3,500 passengers expecting to fly to or from London Gatwick on 20 flights on Monday morning have been grounded.
Most are booked on EasyJet, which cancelled its first flight of the day, to Ibiza, and six others including links to Naples and Nice.
Passengers were told the cause was “air-traffic control restrictions” and outside the airline’s control.
The cancellations are in addition to 64 flights grounded by easyJet on Sunday due to short-notice staff shortage in Gatwick’s control tower.
EasyJet said on Sunday evening that it was “extremely disappointed that customers are once again being impacted by this”.
In terms of the sheer scale of disruption over one of the busiest weekends of the year, British Airways passengers trying to fly to or from London Heathrow have been worst affected.
Between Friday and Sunday BA cancelled 240 flights, affecting around 40,000 passengers. On Monday the airline had grounded a further eight departures and arrivals at Heathrow, plus six at Gatwick.
Full report: UK flight chaos continues with dozens more cancellations at Gatwick and Heathrow
Flight chaos continues with dozens more cancellations at Gatwick and Heathrow
Exclusive: British Airways and easyJet have grounded dozens more flights as Ryanair demands the resignation of air-traffic control boss
Nearly 50 departures and 51 arrivals were cancelled on Sunday from Gatwick
Gatwick flights have frequently been disrupted due to ATC staffing issues.
Analysis of data from flight tracking website FlightRadar24 shows 49 departures and 51 arrivals were cancelled on Sunday between 3pm and midnight, affecting more than 16,000 passengers.
Many other flights were delayed.
Easyjet blames UK air-traffic control for delays
A spokesperson for easyJet said: “The knock-on impact of Nats air traffic control staffing shortages at Gatwick yesterday has resulted in some flights to and from Gatwick Airport this morning being unable to operate.
“We are extremely disappointed that customers are once again being impacted by this and while this is outside of our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused.
“We are doing all possible to minimise the impact of the disruption and have notified those on cancelled flights of their options to rebook or receive a refund and are providing hotel accommodation and meals where required.”
How can you claim if your flight is cancelled or delayed?
Each airline should enable you to fill out an online form, but these are sometimes difficult to track down. The pages for Ryanair and British Airways is below:
- British Airways (click on “Submit a new claim”)
The payment must be made by cheque or bank transfer, except if the airline obtains the prior signed agreement of the passenger to pay with vouchers for future travel.
For example, an airline might offer a 30 per cent uplift if you accept vouchers that are valid for a year – so a choice between £350 in cash or £455-worth of flights.
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