By Guy Taylor
Easyjet’s chief executive has questioned whether Britain’s National Air Traffic Services (NATs) is fit for purpose following the network-wide failure of the country’s air traffic control systems last week.
Speaking to City A.M. on the sidelines of a London conference, Johan Lundgren said a review of the situation should determine whether NATs is “really fit for purpose, not only on the systems but on the technology, on the staffing levels and what is needed to avoid air traffic disruption that has been unacceptable this summer”.
His comments come as the UK aviation sector recovers from the incident, which left hundreds of passengers stranded and forced airlines to cancel thousands of flights.
NATs, which looks after UK airspace, said last weeks’ incident was caused by a piece of flight plan data which was incorrectly put into the system by an airline.
The group has launched a preliminary investigation into what happened but there have been concerns over the inquiries’ independence.
“It needs to be a fully independent review of the situation and we think that it should be broader than just looking at the specific situation here with the health of the system,” Lundgren told City A.M.
The inquiry “needs to look at staffing levels,” he explained, while noting that the air traffic control (ATC) tower at Gatwick, Easyjet’s primary hub, has “not been staffed to the level where you should expect it to be.”
Lundgren said the situation has “not been good enough.”
Industry leaders, including former BA boss Willie Walsh and Ryanairs’ chief executive Michael O’Leary, have also criticised NATs over the failure.
NATs is a public-private partnership owned in part by a consortium of airlines that include Easyjet and British Airways, with the government also holding a 49 per cent ‘golden share’ stake.
The findings of its preliminary investigation will be revealed to the public later this week, and were shared with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) watchdog and Transport Secretary Mark Harper earlier on Monday.
NATs was approached for comment.
