Ryanair calls for major change to avoid more flight chaos this summer

Ryanair calls for major change to avoid more flight chaos this summer after airline leadership urged accountability over UK air traffic disruption. Ryanair demanded the resignation of NATS boss Martin Rolfe following a technical failure that disrupted UK air traffic control overnight on July 6/7. The airline said about 30,000 passengers faced delays of up to three hours on 155 flights because NATS could not access vital weather data due to an issue. Ryanair said the incident reflects repeated failures since a catastrophic NATS system meltdown in 2023. NATS responded that the disruption was caused by a technical fault at the Met Office, which temporarily prevented vital weather information from reaching NATS systems; some air traffic restrictions were applied and then removed shortly after. Ryanair’s operations chief Neal McMahon argued that underlying problems had not been addressed and said Rolfe should step down. The Met Office was contacted for comment.