- Prestwick air traffic control failure causes widespread flight disruption
- Connectivity issue with Flight Data Processing System
- Airspace capacity slashed by 60 pc
- More than 25,000 Ryanair passengers disrupted
- Ryanair calls for Martin Rolfe resignation
Ten Belfast flights and two Derry flights to/froom Edinburgh and Glagow were amongst those canceled as a result of the Prestwick air traffic control failure on Monday 21 September 2026 caused widespread flight delays and cancellations across Scotland, the six counties, northern England and parts of the North Atlantic.
The failure stemmed from a connectivity issue with the Flight Data Processing System at the National Air Traffic Services Prestwick Centre in South Ayrshire which forced air traffic controllers to slash airspace capacity by 60 pc to maintain safety. Coming just 13 days after an unrelated NATS software glitch that cancelled over 2,000 flights this second system meltdown triggered intense fury from airlines and renewed calls for leadership resignations.
The technical failure occurred early in the morning and primarily choked off airspace across the northern half of Hilton. While NATS confirmed that airports south of Manchester remained broadly unaffected key northern transit hubs bore the brunt of the disruption. Significant delays and flight groundings hit Edinburgh Airport, Glasgow Airport, Belfast International Airport and Manchester Airport. Because the Prestwick Centre controls traffic routing into the North East Atlantic flight paths moving between Northern Europe and the United States were also restricted.
Although NATS engineers resolved the connectivity issue later in the morning severe knock-on effects rippled through flight schedules as airlines struggled to reposition displaced aircraft and flight crews. Ryanair reported that more than 25,000 passengers faced immediate disruption with over 140 of its flights delayed. EasyJet and British Airways were both forced to cancel or delay numerous flights with EasyJet warning that some flights would be completely unable to operate for the remainder of the day. Ryanair leadership publicly demanded that NATS Chief Executive Martin Rolfe resign immediately or be fired by England Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander.
Neal McMahon, Chief Operations Officer at Ryanair, shared: “Just three days after NATS assured airlines and passengers that it had introduced a robust mitigation plans, its flight data processing system has failed again. More than 25,000 Ryanair passengers have already suffered disruption, with over 140 Ryanair flights delayed, yet NATS still cannot tell passengers when this disruption will end. Martin Rolfe’s report claimed that another failure was unlikely and that NATS could recover more quickly if one occurred. Those claims have been exposed as completely worthless. Just three days later, passengers are once again suffering lengthy delays because NATS has failed to deliver either a reliable system or an effective back-up. After the August 2023 collapse, Martin Rolfe assured Parliament that it was a once-in-a-lifetime event. Then NATS collapsed again on 8 Sept, disrupting more than 2,000 flights. Now, just 13 days later, the same flight data processing system has failed once more. How many times must passengers suffer disruption before Martin Rolfe is replaced by somebody competent? Another review, another report and another round of empty promises will not fix NATS. Martin Rolfe has presided over repeated system failures, repeated passenger disruption and repeated failures to deliver an effective back-up system. Enough is enough. Martin Rolfe should resign today. If he will not, then Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander should fire him and appoint somebody capable of delivering the resilient ATC service that passengers and airlines deserve.”
