Overview

• A radar failure at NATS’s Swanwick centre on July 30 triggered a 20-minute ground stop before engineers switched to a backup system and fully restored operations within an hour.
• Despite NATS confirming that systems are once again fully operational, more than 150 flights remain cancelled and widespread delays carried over into Thursday.
• The Department for Transport is working closely with NATS to investigate the outage’s root causes and strengthen contingency planning for future incidents.
• Airlines including Ryanair and easyJet have called for NATS CEO Martin Rolfe’s resignation and urged the Civil Aviation Authority to enforce tougher resilience standards.
• Passengers face uncertain compensation under the “extraordinary circumstances” doctrine, prompting calls for clearer travel rights and regulatory reform.