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NATS outage cancels 1,300 flights, Transport Secretary demands report

By Drooid · Sep 11, 2026, 10:45 PM UTC · How we work

Summary

NATS Triggers Flight Chaos

National Air Traffic Services (NATS) suffered a technical outage that grounded thousands of flights.
The outage cancelled more than 1,300 flights on Tuesday and 291 on Wednesday, exceeding 2,000 total.
Around 330,000 passengers were affected, with 155,000 cancellations and 180,000 delays.
Ryanair COO Neal McMahon and Wizz Air demanded NATS chief Martin Rolfe resign.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander met Rolfe, said the outage was not unavoidable, and gave him a week for a report.

Summary

NATS Faces Outage

NATS experienced a 2026 outage in its flight-processing system, prompting on-site engineers to fix it.
NATS is a public-private firm with the UK government holding 49% plus a blocking share.
Lockheed Martin built the Swanwick centre in 2002, boosting capacity 30% and managing England, Wales, and London lower-altitude traffic.
NATS handles about 2.5 million flights yearly, supporting roughly 250 million passengers.

History

Historical Context

On 11 January 2023 the FAA’s NOTAM system failed, forcing a nationwide ground stop—the first such action since the September 11, 2001 attacks—and delaying over 10,000 flights. The outage exposed weaknesses in a system whose automation began in the 1970s and later fed into the NextGen modernization, and Delta Air Lines, which had a working backup, chose not to activate it.

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NATS Triggers Flight Chaos

National Air Traffic Services (NATS) suffered a technical outage that grounded thousands of flights.
The outage cancelled more than 1,300 flights on Tuesday and 291 on Wednesday, exceeding 2,000 total.
Around 330,000 passengers were affected, with 155,000 cancellations and 180,000 delays.
Ryanair COO Neal McMahon and Wizz Air demanded NATS chief Martin Rolfe resign.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander met Rolfe, said the outage was not unavoidable, and gave him a week for a report.

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