More than 1,300 flights cancelled with passengers forced to bed down in terminals - as government ‘demands explanation’
Thousands of passengers remain stranded across Europe as the wave of cancellations continues.
Thousands of Brits remain stranded in airports across Europe, with many forced to sleep on cold terminal floors, after air traffic control systems failed across the UK on Tuesday.
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More than 1,000 flights were cancelled on Tuesday after a "system error" with Air Traffic Control Services (Nats) grounded planes.
An estimated 300 further flights were cancelled on Wednesday morning, with footage emerging from airports across Europe overnight showing passengers sleeping on terminal floors.
It comes as the glitch is thought to have cost the air travel industry around £100million, as the head of the Nats refused to step down over the glitch, despite admitting responsibility and adding he was "sorry" for the ongoing issues.
Martin Rolfe will speak to the Transport Secretary later today to discuss the disruption, with the knock-on effects set to rumble on into Thursday.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told LBC's Nick Ferrari that the Transport Secretary would today "demand an explanation" of Mr Rolfe, insisting: "We need our airports running normally."
Footage emerging from airports across the UK and wider European destinations show passengers sleeping on floors and camp beds in terminals, as well as being provided with towels, chocolate bars and fizzy pop by airport staff.
Meanwhile, Neil McMahon, COO of Ryanair, told LBC that the CEO of National Air Traffic Services (NATS) Martin Rolfe had overseen “a pattern of failure” after more than 1,000 flights were cancelled on Tuesday .
“Martin Rolfe should go meet the Transport Secretary this afternoon and resign. He has presided over a pattern of failures," he said, as he called on the COO to resign.
He said repeated disruption showed NATS had failed to invest properly in resilience, despite assurances after the major air traffic control failure in August 2023 that similar problems would not happen again.
McMahon also told Nick Ferrari the latest disruption would cost Ryanair “millions and millions” of pounds.
“This is a UK problem. We see nothing similar across Europe at the scale of the NATS failures we’ve seen.”
One British traveller, currently stranded at Frankfurt Airport, told LBC that staff provided passengers with camp beds, towels and chocolate, alongside dimming the lights in areas where passengers slept.
Another stranded passenger attempting to fly home from Ibiza told LBC that her Tuesday flight was cancelled, with British Airways offering her the next available flight - that wasn't until Friday.
She was eventually forced to change airlines in order to board an alternate flight to Bournemouth Airport, which is set to take off later today.
"Following yesterday's NATS technical issue, flights are operating today, but some disruption may continue as airlines reposition aircraft and crew," Heathrow Airport said in a statement on Wednesday.
Advising travellers to check their flight status before heading to the airport, they continued: "Please check your flight status with your airline before travelling to the airport and only travel if your flight is confirmed to be operating.
"We apologise to those affected and have extra colleagues across our terminals to support passengers while we work with NATS and airline partners to restore normal operations as quickly as possible."
"Well, first of all, I want to apologise to your listeners and others who have faced this terrible disruption, Nick. This should not be happening. It should not happen again, Mr Milliband told Nick.
"Heidi Alexander will be calling in the head of NATS this morning to demand an explanation of what happened and what steps NATS are taking to prevent this kind of thing happening.
Adding: "We need our airports running. We need our aeroplanes running normally. We can't have this happening."
Heathrow was seen to cancel all inbound flights on Tuesday evening, with other major UK airports only resuming flights late on Tuesday night.
Despite the system issue being fixed, the knock-on effects are expected to last into Wednesday at least - as hundreds of flights try to reach their destinations.
According to FlightRadar, 246 flights had been cancelled at Heathrow Airport by 6am on Wednesday, while Gatwick passengers faced 33 cancellations.
Nats’ chief executive officer Martin Rolfe said he “always accept(s) full responsibility” when asked if he was considering his position after the incident.
Nats, which provides air traffic control services to 15 UK airports, said in a statement that recovery had “taken longer than we had hoped”, but that its “system issue” on Tuesday had been resolved by 7.30pm as thousands of passengers continued to face cancellations and delays.
Nats boss Martin Rolfe said amid the fiasco that he “always” accepts “full responsibility” after a technical issue caused huge disruption to flights.
He said: “I am the CEO of a piece of critical infrastructure, so it is my job to take responsibility for that.
“What I absolutely take responsibility for is keeping people safe and delivering the best service we possibly can on a day like today.
“You will understand my focus is entirely about how we actually resolve this issue, get things back to normal, help our airlines, our airport customers and the travelling public.”
Mr Rolfe has been under fire from Wizz Air and Ryanair after the latest issue which saw some passengers trapped on planes on runways for hours.
Ryanair said more than 65,000 of its passengers had been disrupted and it had cancelled more than 50 scheduled flights.
British Airways (BA) said it was forced to cancel or divert more than 100 flights on Tuesday which had impacted “tens of thousands of customers”.
Neal McMahon, Ryanair’s chief operating officer, called on Mr Rolfe to resign, saying: “How many more failures do passengers have to suffer before overpaid failure Nats CEO Martin Rolfe accepts responsibility for his repeated mismanagement and resigns?
“Over three years after Nats’ catastrophic 2023 system meltdown, it’s clear that nothing has changed, with UK passengers once again suffering avoidable ATC (air traffic control) delays of up to eight hours today due to a critical Nats ATC system failing.”
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is set to speak with Mr Rolfe on Wednesday before she addresses MPs in the Commons for the second reading of the Civil Aviation Bill.
Mr Rolfe said airlines would be able to provide the best information on how long the ongoing impact would take to resolve.
“From a Nats perspective, our system is now back up and running, so we have resolved the issue and now controllers are there to help make sure that we can recover as fast as possible,” he said.
“The challenge, of course, is this is a little bit like an accident on the M25 in rush hour. You clear the accident, but then you have a long tailback which needs to be resolved, aircraft in the wrong place, and so on.
“The best information in terms of how long will take to resolve lies with the airlines.”
Heathrow suspended arrivals from 8pm for the rest of the day on Tuesday “to ensure the safety of our passengers and colleagues”.
“Departures have resumed, but disruption is expected to continue, so we advise passengers to check with their airline for the latest flight information before travelling to the airport,” the airport said in a statement on X.
“We apologise to those affected and are supporting our local Nats team and airline partners as they work through the resulting disruption. “