Ryanair canceled about 1,000 flights across UK airports in October 2026 due to repeated failures of the country’s air traffic control systems. The disruptions are linked to system collapses within National Air Traffic Services (NATS), severely impacting travel across airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, and Stansted.
Earlier, on September 8, 2026, a NATS system failure grounded more than 1,300 flights nationwide. This outage affected major UK airports and contributed to over 2,000 delays or cancellations recorded by aviation data providers Cirium and Flightradar24 during a two-day period in early September.
Causes and Official Responses
Ryanair’s chief operating officer Neal McMahon attributed the September 8
disruption to a “spurious flight plan,” echoing a similar system collapse in August 2023 triggered by a single flawed flight plan overload. McMahon publicly called for the resignation of NATS CEO Martin Rolfe, describing him as an “overpaid failure.” Rolfe apologized for the incident on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, emphasizing that safety was never compromised and dismissing any involvement of cyber attacks. He stated, “Things do go wrong in complex systems.”
The disruption was worsened by Belgian air traffic controller strikes and volcanic ash clouds from Mount Etna. Later in September, a connectivity issue at NATS’s Scottish control centre
in Prestwick triggered additional flight cancellations across British airspace.
Passenger Impact and Airline Performance
The cancellations and delays led to widespread disruption for thousands of passengers flying with Ryanair and other carriers. Despite these setbacks, Ryanair reported carrying 20.1 million passengers on more than 111,700 flights in September 2026, representing a 4% increase compared to the previous year. Wizz Air experienced an even larger increase of 24%, with 7.78 million passengers during the same month, though the airline announced plans to reduce its capacity by 5% in late 2026 amid rising jet fuel costs and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
Government Calls for Action
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander
summoned Sir Warren East, chairman of NATS, for urgent discussions to address the repeated air traffic control infrastructure failures. The government demands structural improvements to the UK air traffic systems to prevent future widespread shutdowns. The ongoing disruptions have heightened pressure on NATS to guarantee more resilient operations and rebuild airline and passenger confidence.
