Gatwick flights cancelled after air traffic control staff shortages

On Thursday, Gatwick Airport flights were cancelled, delayed or diverted at short notice due to a shortage of air traffic controllers. 

The airport confirmed 22 cancellations as of 22:00 BST, whilst the website FlightRadar24 said hundreds of flights in and out of the airport were delayed. 

The National Air Traffic Services (Nats) apologised for its staffing shortages. 

Normal service is expected to resume on Friday. 

EasyJet expressed its frustration at the chaos on Thursday, while Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary called on Nats’ boss to resign. 

Thursday’s cancellations and delays came just weeks after a technical issue at Nats led to 2,000 flights being cancelled across the UK.

Mr O’Leary said: “It is unacceptable that more flights and hundreds of passengers are suffering delays to/from Gatwick Airport due to Nats CEO, Martin Rolfe’s blatant failure to adequately staff UK ATC.

“Airlines are paying millions of pounds to Nats each and every year and should not have to see their passengers suffer avoidable delays due to UK ATC staff shortages.”