An inquiry into England’s August 2023 air traffic control disruption, which affected over 700,000 passengers, found that delays in verifying the password of a Level 2 engineer who was working remotely significantly delayed the response efforts after a technical failure at National Air Traffic Services (NATS).
The report highlighted that NATS should have stationed a Level 2 engineer on site during peak periods to avoid such costly outages, which are estimated to have incurred up to £100m in losses for the industry and travellers.
Recommendations from the inquiry included the need for better communication with airlines and airports, as many were left uninformed about the incident until they learned of it through media reports, causing further passenger inconvenience.
London Transport Secretary Louise Haigh emphasized the importance of the inquiry’s recommendations to enhance the aviation sector, while NATS acknowledged its past shortcomings and stated efforts are underway to implement improvements and prevent future incidents.
