Ryanair calls for dismissal of UK air traffic control boss

Ryanair has renewed its calls for the dismissal of the head of UK airspace after 100 flights and 16,000 passengers were affected by problems with air traffic control at Gatwick airport.

Turmoil over the weekend at London’s second airport affected about one in eight scheduled services, prompting the budget airline to tell Louise Haigh, the new transport secretary, that she must remove Martin Rolfe as the chief executive of the part-privatised UK National Air Traffic Services.

“UK Nats staff shortages caused multiple flight delays and cancellations at Gatwick airport yesterday [Sunday, September 8],” the airline said. “This is the latest in a long line of cock-ups by UK Nats, which has yet again disrupted multiple flights and thousands of passengers at Gatwick.

“Airlines and passengers deserve better. Ryanair again calls on UK Nats’ chief executive Martin Rolfe to step down and allow someone competent to run an efficient UK air traffic control service, which airlines and passengers are entitled to expect. If he won’t go, then Louise Haigh should sack him.”

It is estimated to be the seventh time in little more than a year that Michael O’Leary, 63, Ryanair’s chief executive, has sought the removal of Rolfe, 52, although it is the first time it has been on the watch of Haigh since her appointment after Labour’s general election victory. O’Leary began his campaign to have Rolfe sacked almost exactly a year ago after a third day of disruptions in two weeks at Gatwick, which had begun with an air traffic control outage at the airport on the busy August bank holiday.

Ryanair is a smaller player at Gatwick, an airport dominated by easyJet, but the theme of O’Leary’s attacks on Rolfe has been a claim that the latter has failed to recruit enough air traffic control staff. The attacks also have followed a similar path to the holiday calendar, coming at the end of the summer season, autumn half-term, before Christmas and then again at new year, spring half-term and then Easter.

Rolfe previously has declined to rise to O’Leary’s insults, telling a parliamentary inquiry last year: “This abrasive approach is not acceptable. For me to respond directly would normalise this behaviour as a way of doing business.”

Nats employs 4,500 people and is co-owned by the government, a number of airline and air industry interests and its employees. Rolfe has been with the organisation for more than a decade and has been its chief executive since 2015. He and his employer have been criticised for arrangements that have led to him being paid more than £1 million in salary, perks and bonuses.