Article
Jet2 demands urgent action after yet another NATS failure disrupts holidaymakers
Published: Mon 21 Sep 2026 at 09:34
Jet2 has demanded urgent action to strengthen the resilience of the UK’s air traffic control infrastructure, after yet another NATS issue, which is leading to delays and disruption for airlines and customers today.
The latest issue, affecting NATS’ Prestwick Centre, has resulted in air traffic regulations being applied to manage demand. NATS have said they are investigating the problem, but once again the result for customers wanting to enjoy their well-deserved holidays are unacceptable delays through no fault of their own.
This latest disruption comes just days after NATS published a report into a technical issue which occurred on September 8th. This failure caused widespread disruption across UK aviation and affected more than 2,000 flights. Although Jet2’s teams worked tirelessly to look after customers and recover operations, like other airlines they incurred significant costs because of that failure. Jet2 has said it will be seeking compensation from NATS for this.
Jet2 says the repeat nature of these incidents shows that urgent and accountable action is needed now rather than reports and apologies.
Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2, said: “Once again, airlines and customers are being disrupted by yet another NATS issue, and one has to ask: how many more failures do customers and airlines have to deal with? This morning’s disruption comes days after NATS published a report into its latest major failure, and it is simply not good enough for this critical national infrastructure to keep letting customers down.
“Customers work hard to look forward to their holidays, and airlines work hard to deliver those holidays. They should not be repeatedly exposed to delays and disruption because the UK’s air traffic control systems cannot be relied upon.
“There have been too many incidents, too many reports and too many promises of lessons being learned. What customers and airlines need now is action, accountability and proper resilience, and we need it urgently.
“Our teams will do what they always do in these situations, which is continue to do everything possible to look after customers and recover operations, but it is unacceptable that airlines and customers are left to pick up the pieces when these recurring failures happen. Make no mistake, we are counting the cost of this disruption and will be sending another bill to NATS.”
Jet2 is calling for NATS and Government to set out the immediate steps being taken to improve system resilience and reduce the risk of further failures, so that airlines and customers are not repeatedly left carrying the cost and consequences of disruption outside their control.
