{
  "id": 6639043,
  "title": "Ryanair's chief accuses UK air traffic control boss of lying over outage",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/09/ryanairs-chief-accuses-uk-air-traffic-control-boss-of-lying-over",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-09T21:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Gulf Times Business",
    "slug": "gulf-times-business",
    "url": "https://www.gulf-times.com/article/733006/business/ryanairs-chief-accuses-uk-air-traffic-control-boss-of-lying-over-outage"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary accused Britain's air traffic control operator NATS of lying about the reason for an outage that caused thousands of flight cancellations. O'Leary stated that the airport was informed by NATS that the issue was due to a \"rogue flight plan,\" similar to a problem that caused a major disruption in 2023. However, NATS CEO Martin Rolfe insisted the latest incident was caused by a different issue, not a similar one. O'Leary, who has called for Rolfe's resignation, said he believed Rolfe was lying to protect himself. A NATS investigation into the 2023 outage found it was caused by a \"one in 15mn\" event involving two flight plans with identical names. Ryanair is suing NATS in London's High Court for over £7mn over the 2023 incident and wants the company to reinvest profits into performance improvements and staffing. The government has given Rolfe a week to investigate the latest systems failure. Transport Minister Heidi Alexander questioned Rolfe, believing the outage was preventable and requested an independent review.",
  "summary": "Delayed passengers wait and queue with their luggage at Terminal 3 of London Heathrow airport, west of London on Tuesday. Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary on Thursday accused the head of B...",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}