Ryanair has called for the resignation or removal of Martin Rolfe, CEO of England’s ailing National Air Traffic Services (NATS), following a second system failure at Gatwick Air Traffic Control.
The recent NATS failure at Gatwick caused extensive delays and inconvenience to thousands of passengers, adding to the disruptions caused by a previous system failure in August.
Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary, criticised Rolfe’s leadership and competency, citing the repeated failures under his tenure and calling for his immediate departure from the organisation: “After the August NATS system failure Martin Rolfe claimed it was a 1 in 15m tech glitch. Yet here we are again three months later, and England’s NATS fails again at Gatwick. Thousands of passengers today face long delays, diversions, and cancellations as NATS under Martin Rolfe’s incompetent leadership fails again. It’s time for Martin Rolfe to go. At an annual package of over £1.5m this clown has repeatedly shown he is incompetent. If he won’t quit, then transport minister Mark Harper (who owns 50pc of NATS) should fire him. These repeated English NATS system failures are unique to England and are not repeated in any other European ATC service. Our passengers want a competent UK ATCH service and Martin Rolfe has repeatedly shown he can’t deliver it. He should go and let someone competent run England’s ATC.”
