A technical failure at NATS air traffic control triggered the cancellation of approximately 2,000 flights across UK airports on September 10 and 11, 2026, affecting major hubs including Heathrow, Gatwick, and Manchester. Airlines impacted include British Airways, Ryanair, and Wizz Air.
Government and Regulator Response
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander ordered an independent review into the failure, with the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) required to deliver a report within six months. NATS was ordered to provide an initial account to the CAA within one week. Alexander stated she did not consider the outage unavoidable. The UK government had previously opposed a parliamentary amendment that
would have obligated NATS to reimburse airlines for passenger compensation claims arising from its failures.
Airline Impact
British Airways canceled or diverted over 100 flights during the disruption. Ryanair canceled over 50 flights, affecting more than 65,000 passengers, while Wizz Air also suffered widespread cancellation and delays. Overall, approximately 330,000 passengers were disrupted across UK airspace.
Background and Calls for Change
This was the third major outage in three years for NATS, a public-private partnership with 49% government ownership and 42% owned by consortium airlines. Previous failures occurred in August 2023 and July 2025. Liberal Democrat MP Luke Taylor stated the government opposed an amendment requiring NATS
to reimburse airlines and called the provider “not fit for purpose,” urging legislative changes to prevent annual outages. The CAA classified this incident as “extraordinary circumstances” under passenger rights rules, limiting compensation eligibility for affected travelers.
Official Statements
NATS apologized to passengers, airlines, and airports, saying, “Our operations are stable and we continue to work closely with airlines and airports to support their recovery from the ongoing disruption to their operations. We would also like to reiterate our apology to all those affected – passengers, airlines and airports – by our system issue. While our immediate focus is on safely managing today’s
flights, a full investigation will be conducted to establish what happened and identify any further action needed.” Ryanair COO Neal McMahon publicly called for the resignation of NATS CEO Martin Rolfe. The CAA stated, “We consider that disruption caused by the NATS outage is likely to be considered the result of ‘extraordinary circumstances’ under passenger rights rules.” Heidi Alexander said, “I do not believe this issue was unavoidable.” Luke Taylor commented, “Following the third major failure of our airspace management in the past three years, it is imperative that this Bill is amended to include measures to stop that happening
again. NATS is quite clearly not fit for purpose. We cannot suffer a major air traffic outage once a year.”
