In a surprising turn of events, Martin Rolfe, the chief executive of the National Air Traffic Control Services (Nats), has publicly acknowledged being the “most disliked person in the UK” following a series of technical failures that disrupted air travel across the country in September.
During the Airlines 2026 conference in London, Rolfe admitted that two separate outages at Nats’ control centres caused widespread chaos, with one incident on 8 September halting thousands of flights and a second glitch at the Prestwick centre on 21 September cancelling over 200 flights. The disruptions led to significant financial losses for airlines, estimated in the tens of millions of pounds.
Ryanair, the country’s largest low‑cost carrier, was among the most vocal critics, calling for Rolfe’s resignation after the repeated failures. Despite these demands, Rolfe stated that he had not considered stepping down and even expressed a degree of amusement at the pressure, noting that the airline’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, has long demanded his sacking.
Rolfe explained that the incidents were caused by unprecedented software problems that have since been addressed. He cautioned that while the specific faults will not recur, he could not guarantee that future outages would never happen, given the complexity of the systems involved.
In acknowledging the impact on passengers, Rolfe said, “If I am the cause of that disruption, I would expect to come in for a lot of flak. We do these jobs knowing that they come with that level of personal responsibility and accountability.” He added that he had not considered resigning, despite repeated calls from airlines, and that he was “quite enjoying” ignoring the repeated requests to quit.
The incidents have sparked a government‑commissioned inquiry into Nats’ operations, with officials seeking to understand how the failures occurred and what measures will be implemented to prevent a recurrence.
Source: The Guardian World
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