Martin Rolfe, the boss of air traffic control provider Nats, has been summoned to meet the UK transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, today, Wednesday 9 September 2026. This comes as the number of flight cancellations has reached 1,300, marking a second day of disruption for hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Mr Rolfe is facing pressure to resign over what is described as a third major stoppage to flights in just over three years. He stated that a cyber-attack has been ruled out as the cause of the “technical issue” at air traffic control.
Nats confirmed the problem occurred in its flight processing system but clarified it was not the same fault as those that caused outages in 2023 and 2025. Heathrow Airport has advised that while flights are operating today, some disruption may continue as airlines reposition aircraft and crew. Gatwick Airport also stated that flights have resumed but disruption is likely to persist.