The Government backed air traffic bosses. Two failures in a month prove they were wrong

They told MPs and the public that the problem had been dealt with and that NATS could be trusted to get on with the job.

Passengers are facing another round of disruption after yet another NATS failure, and the Prime Minister and Transport Secretary have some serious explaining to do. Flights have been delayed and cancelled, holidays disrupted and travellers left stranded because the system running our airspace has failed again.

People have holidays booked, weddings, family visits and business meetings planned around these flights. Now passengers are left stuck at airports, trying to get through to airlines and work out how they are going to get where they need to be. Some will face extra costs for hotels, food and getting home. It is a huge disruption to people’s lives, caused by another failure at NATS.

Belfast International faces easyJet cancelling 20 arrivals and departures, at least 14 flights to and from Edinburgh have been grounded. Passengers at Heathrow are suffering knock-on delays, with at least a dozen British Airways flights grounded, including services to Amsterdam, Dublin and Nice. BA flights from London City to Edinburgh and Belfast City have also been cancelled. Manchester has also been hit hard, with easyJet and KLM cancelling Amsterdam round-trips, as well as easyJet services to Paris and Newquay.

Under air passengers’ rights rules, travellers whose flights are grounded are entitled to be flown to their destination as soon as possible on any airline, and to be provided with meals and hotels until they get there.

Nobody expects ministers to run air traffic control themselves, but they are responsible for the judgements they make about the people who do. When Ms Alexander and Mr Burnham backed Mr Rolfe, they did so based on assurances they had been given, and now they need to tell the public what those assurances were, who gave them and why they believed them.

So, what exactly were they told? What action was promised after the last failure, and why did ministers believe those assurances were good enough?

The Government commissioned a review after the last failure. NATS has published preliminary findings identifying a software defect behind the 8 September 2026 incident. Yet before the dust had settled, passengers faced another technical failure.

The Government even owns 49 per cent of NATS, making it the largest single shareholder with every right to demand answers from the board and a clear duty to do so on behalf of taxpayers and passengers.

The public should not have to wait for another statement in Parliament before ministers explain what went wrong. Being dragged to Parliament should not be the only way the public gets an answer from the Transport Secretary, and a review should not be a way of buying time until the story moves on.

The Prime Minister and the Transport Secretary should start by publishing the assurances they relied on when they backed the leadership of NATS, and by explaining why they judged them to be credible. They should also set out what the Government, as the largest shareholder, has asked of the NATS board since the last failure, what answers it received and what it intends to do now. Above all, they need to explain why, after failure after failure, anyone should have confidence in their judgement.

Air traffic control is a service that families, businesses and holidaymakers rely on without a second thought. People expect answers when it fails.

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Richard Holden MP is the Shadow Transport Secretary.

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