The boss of Nats has said he was “the most disliked person in the UK” after air traffic control systems failed twice in September, disrupting flights for hundreds of thousands of passengers.
He told an aviation industry conference: “My name is Martin Rolfe, I’m the CEO of Nats – or as I like to think of myself, the most disliked person in the UK in September.”
Airlines led by Ryanair called for Rolfe’s resignation after two technical failures in a fortnight at the two control centres run by Nats (National Air Traffic Control Services) stopped flights taking off and landing.
However, Rolfe said he was “quite enjoying” ignoring the repeated calls from Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary to quit.
Airlines have said the outage on ۸ September alone cost them tens of millions of pounds. The chaos that day stemmed from an issue in Nats’s flight control systems and is now the subject of a government-commissioned inquiry.
Rolfe told the Airlines ۲۰۲۶ conference in London on Wednesday that Nats had expected to handle about ۸,۰۰۰ flights that day and ۶,۰۰۰ had flown, although he did not address the long delays that many of those experienced.
On ۲۱ September, a further glitch at Nats’s second control centre at Prestwick in Scotland led to more than ۲۰۰ flight cancellations.
Rolfe said the causes for both events were unprecedented but had been fixed, although he could not promise no more outages would occur.
He said he understood the disruption for people planning holidays and travel, adding: “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 and that’s where I think we’re most tested.
“So yeah, I was definitely unpopular. There hasn’t been a poll, so I can’t say for sure.”
He said he had not considered resigning, despite repeated calls by airlines, particularly O’Leary, who has demanded his sacking for several years since flights were grounded on the August bank holiday in ۲۰۲۳.
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Rolfe said: “To be fair, that is something he says all the time to pretty much everyone so I’m not going to spend too much time worrying about that. In fact, I quite enjoy not doing that.”
He said that the particular faults experienced in September “will never recur”, but added: “Nobody standing on a stage like this can credibly promise that a complex technical system will never experience another fault.”
Ryanair was approached for comment.
According to Nats’s early report, the software problem in September was not immediately believed to be serious. The Civil Aviation Authority is reviewing the findings and will report to the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, early in ۲۰۲۷.
In a potentially ominous warning for Rolfe, Alexander subsequently told the conference: “Like you, I expect that system to be resilient. And like you, I was angry when it fell short … [it] was simply unacceptable.
She said the would not “jump the gun” before the CAA findings but added: “I can assure you that I will do whatever it takes to ensure that lessons are learned.”
