Gatwick cancellations prompt Ryanair anger at Nats

Nats said it was working in line with a staffing plan agreed with Gatwick

Ryanair has called on the boss of the UK's largest air traffic control provider to step down following the cancellation of around 82 flights at Gatwick Airport this week.

National Air Traffic Services (Nats) has imposed caps on the number of flights leaving the airport due to staff absence.

The airline called on chief executive Martin Rolfe to "step down" and said it would not be cancelling flights, as requested by Nats.

However, Nats argued that flight caps were "the responsible thing to do" to reduce disruption.

In a statement, Ryanair said it was "unacceptable" that airlines had been asked to cancel flights as a result of "Nats' failure to adequately staff" air traffic control.

Ryanair said Nats was "a shambles" and referred to a fault in the system which "brought UK aviation to its knees" on 28 August.

Nats said around 30% of tower staff were unavailable for "a variety of medical reasons including Covid".

A spokesperson said: "We have trained as many air traffic controllers as possible this year in the Gatwick tower and have safely managed over 180,000 flights so far."

The airline, which has a relatively small operation at Gatwick, said it paid Nats almost £87m a year for its service.

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