UK summons air traffic boss after major outage as flights slowly resume

British airports saw the resumption of flights on Wednesday following a major air traffic failure that left over 1,000 flights canceled and hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded. The outage, which occurred on Tuesday, has raised concerns about the reliability of Britain's aviation systems, prompting Transport Minister Heidi Alexander to summon NATS boss Martin Rolfe for an explanation.

The shutdown, which follows two previous system meltdowns in 2023 and 2025, comes amid mounting pressure on the flight control provider NATS and its management. Alexander expressed her desire to hear Rolfe's assurances that lessons have been learned and that the aviation infrastructure is up to the task.

NATS, a public-private partnership that includes ownership from airlines, pension funds, and the government, has been facing criticism for the scale of the outage. Ryanair, Europe's largest airline, has been calling for Rolfe's resignation since 2023, claiming that Britain's airspace underperforms compared to other countries. Ryanair's COO Neal McMahon stated that while other locations have experienced minor issues, the UK consistently faces more significant problems.

However, Rolfe denied that Britain was worse than other countries and maintained that the country's air traffic service was well-regarded for safety and resilience. He ruled out cyberattacks as the cause of the outage, stating that they have different underlying issues. As operations resumed, Heathrow advised passengers to check with their airline for updated schedules due to the disruptions.

London Gatwick, Stansted, and Luton also reported that they were operating normally but urged passengers to verify with their airlines before heading to the airport.