Thursday 31 August 2023 4:46 pm | Updated: Thursday 31 August 2023 4:53 pm

Easyjet boss calls for independent review into air traffic control failure

The boss of Easyjet has demanded that a “full independent review” is launched into the air traffic control (ATC) failure.

Chief executive Johnan Lundgren said the incident – which wrecked the travel plans of around a quarter of a million people this week – “must not happen again”.

Flights to and from UK airports were restricted for several hours on Monday afternoon as National Air Traffic Services (Nats) was unable to process flight plans automatically.

The company said an “unusual piece of data” it received forced it to switch to manual checks.

More than a quarter of flights were cancelled on Monday, and the knock-on effect continued for two more days.

Thousands of holidaymakers are still stranded overseas as many flights from popular destinations are full.

Lundgren said: “We have been absolutely focused this week on helping our customers impacted by the ATC failure return home.

“An incident of this scale should not have happened and must not happen again in the future.

“Passengers deserve to see a full independent review, which not only results in meaningful improvements to prevent an incident of this scale happening again but also considers a wide range of issues beyond this incident, including staffing levels required at Nats (National Air Traffic Services) to deliver today’s flying and what modernisation is needed to deliver the flying of tomorrow.”