Gatwick: EasyJet boss criticises air traffic control over delays

Some passengers ended up waiting overnight in Cardiff to return to Gatwick

The boss of EasyJet has criticised National Air Traffic Services (Nats) after disruption hit Gatwick Airport.

A shortage of air traffic controllers caused delays and cancellations at Gatwick on Thursday evening.

EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said the lack of staff had "plagued the industry and repeatedly let down customers all summer".

Nats has apologised for its staffing shortages and Gatwick's air traffic control tower was now "fully staffed".

The airport said it was "operating as normal" after 42 flights were cancelled by Thursday night, along with hundreds of delays, according to the website FlightRadar24.

The disruption comes two weeks after a technical issue at Nats led to 2,000 flights being cancelled across the UK.

Mr Lundgren said: "Persistent staff shortages at Nats have plagued the industry and repeatedly let down customers all summer, having caused more than a month's worth of disruption.

"This cannot be allowed to continue.

"Immediate action must be taken to fix the staffing shortages now while a more wide-ranging review examines broader issues to ensure Nats delivers robust services to passengers now and in the future."

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has also been fiercely critical of Nats and called on boss Martin Rolfe to resign.

Passengers were still reporting minor delays and some struggled to get home after their flights were diverted.

One passenger who was scheduled to fly into Gatwick from Dalaman, Turkey, on Thursday evening, ended up landing in Cardiff at 04:00 BST after her flight was rescheduled.

She told the BBC she then had wait for three hours for onward transportation.

The National Air Traffic Services (Nats) apologised for its staffing shortages

James Devonport, from Brighton, flew home from Dublin on Thursday evening and said the journey was "pretty chaotic", claiming that "staff didn't really seem to know the flights were delayed until we got a notification through on our phones".

"It was all quite a live situation and people were getting quite angry," he told BBC Radio Sussex.

The plane took off after about 90 minutes, he said.

"We felt super lucky we were on one of those flights that did manage to get in," Mr Devonport said.

Travel expert Simon Calder posted to his 197,000 followers on X, which is formerly known as Twitter, that flights had returned to normal on Friday morning "with a few knock-on delays following the latest issue with air-traffic control".

Jack Slater, who was travelling to Milan from Gatwick on Friday, said all flights were "a bit delayed but nothing by more than an hour it seems".

He said everyone at the airport was "fairly chilled".

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