Ryanair CEO calls for NATS leadership change after UK air traffic failures

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has called for the replacement of NATS CEO Martin Rolfe following technical failures in the UK air traffic control system. In an open letter to British Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, O’Leary argued that Rolfe’s position is “untenable” after recent disruptions.

The technical issues, occurring on 8 and 9 September 2026, reportedly affected over 2,163 flights across the United Kingdom. Ryanair stated the incident caused delays for 65,000 of its passengers and resulted in more than 250 flight cancellations. Airlines UK reported that over 330,000 passengers were affected overall by the disruption.

O’Leary criticized the effectiveness of NATS’s backup systems, noting that a similar outage in August 2023 was previously addressed with promises of increased resilience. The airline chief expressed dissatisfaction with the prospect of further investigations or parliamentary hearings, demanding immediate leadership changes instead.