Michael O'Leary: UK Air Traffic Control Chief's Position 'Untenable'
Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has called for the chief executive of the UK air traffic control (ATC) operator to be sacked, calling his position "untenable" following another technical issue forcing the cancellation and delay of flights across the UK and, by consequence, Ireland and other countries.
A technical issue at the UK's National Air Traffic Services (NATS) caused widespread disruption across many major British airports on Tuesday - among them London's Gatwick, Stansted and Heathrow; and Manchester Airport. This, in turn, led to a knock on series of delays in Irish airports - with Dublin, Shannon and Cork all affected to some degree.
Dublin - although now largely back to normal - reported around 70 inbound/outbound flights affected yesterday.
NATS quickly ruled out fears of a large-scale cyber attack and has resolved the system; and airports - including Dublin - have said they are largely back to normal services. However, the latest incident has thrown fresh scrutiny on NATS' operational capabilities.
Ryanair has echoed its previous calls for NATS CEO Martin Rolfe to quit, saying this week's latest failure dsrupted more than 65,000 of its passengers and forced it to cancel more than 50 scheduled flights.
Ryanair COO, Neal McMahon, said: “How many more failures do passengers have to suffer before overpaid failure NATS CEO, Martin Rolfe, accepts responsibility for his repeated mismanagement and resigns? Over three years after NATS’ catastrophic 2023 system meltdown, it’s clear that nothing has changed, with UK passengers once again suffering avoidable ATC delays of up to 8 hours today due a critical NATS ATC system failing. Families travelling on holiday, people travelling for work and thousands of visitors to the UK have once again paid the price for NATS’ abhorrent failure.
"The astonishing part is that NATS continues to charge airlines and passengers more each year while delivering a worse service. Following the 2023 collapse, we were told lessons would be learned. We were told “resilience would improve”. We were told the systems had been fixed. Yet here we are again. This is a pattern of repeated failure with Rolfe in charge getting paid over £1.4m in bonuses p.a. while he delivers failure after failure," Mr McMahon added.
He said: "The UK Government, the CAA and the NATS Board must stop making excuses for repeated NATS failures and appoint a new leader capable of running the UK ATC system without repeated failures. It’s time for overpaid failure Martin Rolfe to go.”
Ryanair Group Chief Executive, Michael O’Leary said: “Martin Rolfe’s position as NATS CEO is untenable. We don't need more “investigations”, we don't need more “reports”, and we don't need another Parliamentary Committee hearing where Martin Rolfe will promise change, will promise resilience, and will promise an effective backup system. Martin Rolfe is an overpaid (£1.4m p.a.) failure. It is time for his removal, and it is time that somebody competent was appointed to run UK ATC, which is one of Europe's most expensive ATC systems, and yet it keeps repeatedly failing.
"Under Martin Rolfe's watch, UK NATS has spent more money paying dividends to its shareholders (the UK Govt and UK airlines), but it has failed to invest in a resilient primary system, has failed to invest in an effective backup system, and as yesterday's events show now UK NATS keeps failing under Martin Rolfe's leadership.
"[British] Transport Minister Heidi Alexander, who owns 49% of NATS, must today demand that failing Martin Rolfe must quit, or be dismissed. Airlines and passengers serving the UK keep picking up the tab for Martin Rolfe’s repeated failures. It is time for this expensive, failing CEO to go, and allow UK NATS to be led by somebody competent and capable of delivering a resilient system and a backup system that actually works.”
Another of Europe's leading low cost carriers, Wizz Air has also called for action - saying NATS needs a major overhaul. A spokesperson for Wizz said such an operator should not be seeing repeated failures, adding that NATS is "not fit for purpose in its current form."
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