Ryanair Calls For UK Air Traffic Chief To Resign

THE long-running battle between Ryanair and the boss of National Air Traffic Services (NATS), has intensified today.

There was more travel chaos this morning as passengers at London Gatwick Airport faced delays owing to staff shortages in the Air Traffic Control Services.

This latest incident led budget airline Ryanair to issue an apology, followed by a fresh call for drastic action.

Taking to the social media platform Twitter/X, they posted: ‘RYANAIR APOLOGISE TO PASSENGERS FOR 2HR DELAYS AT GATWICK AIRPORT DUE TO NATS STAFF SHORTAGES.’

They vented their frustration by calling for the director of NATS to step down: ‘Ryanair the UK’s no1 airline has again called for NATS CEO Martin Rolfe to quit (or be removed by the UK govt) as staff shortages at Gatwick airport (Dec 14) caused passenger delays of up to 2hrs.’

They went on to mention incompetence at the highest level: ‘Today’s NATS failure follow on from weekend disruption caused by NATS mismanagement and is just over 3 months after Martin Rolfe presided over the NATS system failure on 28 August.

‘These repeated failures are unique to the UK and are not repeated in any other European ATC services. It’s time for overpaid CEO Martin Rolfe to quit or be dismissed.’

A spokesperson on behalf of Ryanair added, ‘it is unacceptable that passengers continue to face disruption due to the mismanagement of NATS by Martin Wolfe. Only 3 months ago, their system failure caused long delays, diversions and cancellations and now passengers are facing over 2hr delays this morning (Dec 14) due to NATS staff shortages.

‘These repeated UK NATS system failures are unique to the UK and are not repeated in any other European ATC service. Our passengers want a competent UK ATC service and Martin Rolfe has repeatedly shown he can’t deliver it. He should go and let someone competent run UK ATC.’

A Spokesperson for NATS confirmed the delays were due to ‘an unavoidable staff shortage’ before offering an apology to both affected ‘airlines and their passengers.’