Second technical issue in 2 weeks afflicts U.K.’s air traffic controller, prompting more travel chaos

Passengers queue at the flight check-in desk at London's Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 after a "technical problem" at the National Air Traffic Services (Nats) control centre in Swanwick, south England, caused long delays and cancellations at airports across the UK, Saturday Dec. 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Steve Parsons, PA)

LONDON — A technical issue afflicted the U.K.’s national air traffic controller on Monday, the second in two weeks, prompting more travel disruption and renewed calls for the organization’s chief to quit.

Although NATS, formerly known as National Air Traffic Services, said the issue at its Prestwick center in Scotland has been fixed, the repercussions will likely continue through the day at the very least, with flights in and out of Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England cancelled or delayed.

“We are working with airports and airlines to safely lift air traffic regulations as quickly as we can to minimize any further disruption,” NATS said in a statement. “We apologize for the disruption.”

At least 200 flights departing from or arriving into the U.K. have been canceled so far, aviation analytics company Cirium said.

Nikki Ferguson and her husband were taking their two daughters to Disneyland Paris, but had their morning EasyJet flight from Glasgow canceled. The Aberdeen family were rebooked to leave in the evening from Edinburgh but were anxious about whether that would happen.

“My youngest daughter was crying, thinking we were not going to get to go,” Ferguson said. “We’re still feeling stressed, not sure if we’re actually going to get there today or not. We booked the holiday a year ago. It was the girls’ big Christmas present.”

NATS said the disruption is unconnected with the software glitch that led to the cancellation of over 2,000 flights in and out of the United Kingdom two weeks ago. The chaos prompted mounting calls for its chief executive Martin Rolfe to stand down.

In a report on the outage published on Friday, NATS said a software defect in the National Airspace System, which allocates codes so air traffic controllers can identify flights on radar, was behind the decision to ax the flights.

Unlike that national disruption, NATS said airports south of Manchester, including those in and out of London, are “broadly unaffected.”

Manchester, Belfast International, Edinburgh and George Best Belfast City airports have seen the most disruption, Cirium said.

Airlines and airports were aghast at the latest technical problem involving air traffic control over the U.K. and demanded urgent action. Ryanair was particularly vociferous in its response, saying more than 25,000 of its passengers are expected to face disruption as a result of the latest problem and said the company’s CEO should stand down immediately or be fired by Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander.

“Martin Rolfe has presided over repeated system failures, repeated passenger disruption and repeated failures to deliver an effective backup system,” its chief operations officer Neal McMahon said. “Enough is enough. Martin Rolfe should resign today.”

EasyJet said the latest flight disruption “once again, calls into question the resilience of NATS’ systems and demonstrates the need for firm actions to prevent these repeated failures.”

And British Airways said it is “disappointing” that some customers may experience disruption after “yet another technical fault” involving NATS.

The U.K. government owns 49 per cent of NATS, making it the largest shareholder and giving it an effective veto over key decisions. Airlines, airports, investors and employees own the remaining shares in the public-private partnership.

“I know this will be deeply frustrating for passengers after the previous issue,” Transport Secretary Alexander said.

Pan Pylas, The Associated Press