 following a new flight cap at Gatwick due to staff sickness Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has slammed the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) after staff sickness led to cancellations at Gatwick airport this week. In a fiery rant, he urged urged Transport Secretary Mark Harper to sack Martin Rolfe, who is head of NATS. He said the aviation chief should "stand down" or "even better, be fired", and argued that the government-owned firm has become a "shambles" while also accusing the board of NATS of being 'incompetent'. The Ryanair boss also levelled unfounded accusations at the NATS staff who were not off due to sickness, who were not off sick with Covid, implying that they had not worked either. Mr O'Leary went on to say NATS was the worst air traffic control in Europe and was 'useless and incompetent'. He claimed the issues on Monday were to do with "mismanagement" rather than illness, before saying that "people in the tower in Gatwick generally just get in the way". The aviation boss was hosting a press conference to announce the budget carrier's seven new routes from the UK. The cheap flights giant will fly from London airport Stansted, Gatwick and Luton to Belfast, Basel in Switzerland, Ouarzazte in Morocco, Tatry in Poland, Tirana in Albania, Treviso in Italy and Vigo in Spain. It will also fly more services on 30 more routes including to Alicante, Athens, Bratislava, Colonge and Faro, the company's CEO said at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. Ryanair will be increasing its flight traffic to and from London by 15% as a result of the route changes. It will be adding two new B737 aircrafts to its fleet at Stansted. In the process 60 new jobs including pilots, cabin crews and engineers in the Capital, the aviation boss said. Customers of the airline are now able to fly to 162 destinations from London. An outbreak of Covid at the air traffic control centre at){kind=link}
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary went on a fiery rant about the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) following a new flight cap at Gatwick due to staff sickness
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has slammed the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) after staff sickness led to cancellations at Gatwick airport this week.
In a fiery rant, he urged urged Transport Secretary Mark Harper to sack Martin Rolfe, who is head of NATS. He said the aviation chief should “stand down” or “even better, be fired”, and argued that the government-owned firm has become a “shambles” while also accusing the board of NATS of being ‘incompetent’.
The Ryanair boss also levelled unfounded accusations at the NATS staff who were not off due to sickness, who were not off sick with Covid, implying that they had not worked either.
Mr O’Leary went on to say NATS was the worst air traffic control in Europe and was “useless and incompetent”. He claimed the issues on Monday were to do with “mismanagement” rather than illness, before saying that “people in the tower in Gatwick generally just get in the way”.