More than 200 flights from airports across the north of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland were cancelled last week due to a technical malfunction at the National Air Traffic Services’ (Nats) Prestwick centre.
The most severely affected airports included George Best Belfast City Airport, where 17.4 per cent of departures were cancelled, Belfast International Airport (12.5 per cent), and Glasgow Airport (10.3 per cent).
Following disruptions earlier in September where over 2000 flights were cancelled across the UK, the competency of Martin Rolfe, Nats Chief Executive, has been challenged by many leading airlines.
Nats claimed airports south of Manchester were “unaffected,” while many internal flights from London still faced implications.
Although unrelated to the previous interference, British Airways said it was “disappointing” that passengers and staff were disrupted because of “yet another technical fault” within Nats.
The Civil Aviation Authority maintained that the tens of thousands passengers impacted were “unlikely” to receive compensation.
Nats claimed it was “focused on working with [their] customers to recover their residual delays and help get their operations back to normal.”
Jason Geall, executive Vice President of Global SME, warned these issues were a “reminder [of] the new norm for air travel.”
Photo by Dennis Gecaj on Unsplash.
