Government backs air traffic control chief after thousands face travel chaosNats chief executive Martin Rolfe has come under fire.Passengers waiting at Gatwick Airport (Gareth Fuller/PA)PA WireRosie Shead4 minutes ago
The chief of Britain’s beleaguered air traffic control provider Nats still has the confidence of the Government, Downing Street has said, after thousands of passengers faced travel chaos following a system issue on Tuesday.
Tens of thousands of travellers were caught up in the disruption, which continued on Wednesday with further cancellations and delays expected as airlines deal with the knock-on impacts at airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted.
Aviation analytics company Cirium said as of Wednesday at 11.30am, 291 flights had been cancelled that day and that more than 2,000 flights over Tuesday and Wednesday had been affected.
Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe has come under fire from Wizz Air following the fault, while Ryanair called on Mr Rolfe to resign.
On Wednesday morning, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander met Mr Rolfe where she raised “significant concerns” regarding the scale of the disruption on behalf of the industry and passengers, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters.
The spokesperson added: “She’s asked him to carry out a full investigation into what happened to make sure that lessons are learned, so that this doesn’t happen again. She set a deadline for them to report back in a week’s time.
“And through our Civil Aviation Bill, which returns to Parliament today, we will make sure air passengers get stronger protection of rights around cancellations, delays and passenger support.”
Asked whether Ms Alexander and the Prime Minister still have confidence in Mr Rolfe, the spokesperson said: “Well, you’ve got the Transport Secretary’s instruction to the Nats CEO.
“I think it’s self-evident that she wants answers and the full investigation to be reported back in a week’s time, and she’s got confidence in him to deliver that.”
Pressed whether this meant the Government’s confidence in the head of air traffic control was conditional on the outcome of the investigation, the spokesperson replied: “We have confidence in him and he’s been tasked with the investigation, which will report in a week’s time.”
Mr Rolfe has apologised for the incident, which he said he took “full responsibility” for.
Passengers who have been stranded amid the disruption have told of their distress, including a 77-year-old father who was due to fly with his daughter to her wedding in Italy.
About an hour before they arrived at Heathrow on Wednesday morning, the pair were told their Naples-bound flight had been cancelled – now they hope to travel to Gatwick, fly to Milan, catch another flight to Naples early on Thursday and then a boat to Ischia.
The wedding is on Sunday, but events start on Friday with a welcome to their friends, who have already arrived.
A passenger sleeps on the floor surrounded by luggage at Gatwick Airport in Crawley, West Sussex (Gareth Fuller/PA)PA Wire
Father of the bride Kevin Turner told the Press Association: “We’ve been delayed and unfortunately my daughter’s been emotionally disturbed because she’s been organising this for the last two years and, with her husband-to-be, we’re looking forward to meeting all the family and they’re doing it in Italy because it’s so romantic.”
He added: “I’m based in Thailand, I’m dad and granddad, I’ve come all the way from Thailand just for this wedding and I can’t walk properly because I had a bad operation a couple of years ago – so this will probably be the last time I’ll be able to make this trip, it’s like a golden opportunity and I feel a little bit let down.”
A couple travelling to Lisbon and then on to the Azores to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary almost fell victim to a scam after a fraudster pretending to work for British Airways (BA) tried to offer them alternative flights from London City, Gatwick or Heathrow airports and via Munich.
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Speaking from a packed Caffe Nero in Heathrow Terminal 5, Geoff and Janina McBride, from Hampshire, told PA they called a phone number on what they thought was the official BA website.
While Mr McBride was trying to make a new payment for hundreds of pounds, his wife became suspicious and phoned their bank, who said “get off the phone to them immediately”, he said, adding: “So they blocked my credit card, cancelled all these things.”
The former government nanotechnology scientist told PA: “I’m very well-versed in cybersecurity, but it’s that one click, isn’t it?
“And it looked legitimate, proper, he sounded proper, he was going through all the different flights, had all the details, so he can pull that off the internet and speak to me down the phone, credit card details – so I was lucky, very lucky.”
Mr McBride said they had tried to book false tickets worth £600 each, adding that the fraudster “tried to get different flights but couldn’t get the credit card to work” and that “we were in a panic – that’s when they get you”.
On Wednesday morning, BA said it had “no choice” but to cancel more than 190 flights that day following the Nats issue which it said was “completely outside of our control” as the airline apologised to customers.
That afternoon, Nats said that its operations were “stable” and it was continuing to work with airlines and airports to support their recovery during the ongoing disruption.
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