'Overpaid failure' air traffic control chief Martin Rolfe must be sacked - Michael O'Leary of Ryanair
Airline boss condemns Nats leader as “incompetent”
The boss of the air traffic control firm responsible for this week’s flight chaos is an “overpaid failure” and must be sacked, the largest airline at Scotland’s busiest airport has demanded.
Ryanair Group chief executive Michael O’Leary said Martin Rolfe of Nats (the former National Air Traffic Services) was “incompetent” and his assurances after previous major faults were “worthless”.
The outburst on Thursday came as air traffic control (ATC) disruption continued two days after the major incident which disrupted more than 220,000 passengers and cancelled more than 1,700 flights, including some 120 in Scotland.
According to aviation analysts Cirium, a further 101 flights were grounded on Thursday, including eight at Glasgow Airport and five at Edinburgh, where Ryanair is the biggest carrier.
Mr O’Leary’s call also follows his airline calling for Mr Rolfe’s resignation and expressing “outrage” after a Nats fault a year ago that lessons had not been learned from an even more significant problem in 2023.
UK Transport secretary Heidi Alexander told MPs on Wednesday she did not believe the air traffic control issue was “unavoidable”.
Mr O’Leary said of the Nats chief executive: “He is not fit to run UK air traffic control and he’s certainly not the person to put in charge of repairing whatever is going on with this shambolic system.
“The lesson that must be learned is that Martin Rolfe is incompetent. He needs to be dismissed.”
The Ryanair chief said the Nats fault was the third in little more than three years following previous incidents in August 2023 and July 2024.
He said: “Nats air traffic controllers have already told our ops controllers this week that it’s a re-run of something similar to what happened in 2023.
“It’s a bogus flight plan has brought down the system. And yet the overpaid failure Martin Rolfe who runs Nats is out there telling us, ‘Oh no, it’s something entirely different.
“This is the same Martin Rolfe who told the Houses of Parliament transport committee in 2023 that the 2023 system collapse was a one-off event, once in a lifetime event, it won't happen again.
“He also assured Parliament that if it does happen again, there’d be an effective backup system. And yet the system failed again in 2024.
“And this week, we've had another Nats ATC system collapse.”
Mr O’Leary said: “We’ve learned this week that there was no backup system. We've also learned this week that your assurances are worthless.”
“It is not acceptable for Heidi Alexander to ask Martin Rolfe to come up with a report into what happened this week. That’s like asking a failed student to mark his own exam papers.
“It’s three strikes and he’s out.”
A Nats spokesperson said: “Due to the continued efforts of airlines, airports and others across the industry, recovery of the aviation network is proceeding well.
“We recognise that some passengers are still experiencing disruption, and we apologise sincerely to all those affected by Tuesday’s technical issue.
“We are very much aware of the additional pressure this has placed on colleagues across the industry, and thank them for their continued hard work.
“A full investigation is already underway. We will report to the Secretary of State for Transport [Heidi Alexander] and the Civil Aviation Authority next week.”
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