The Civil Aviation Authority’s announcement on October 6 of an independent review of the August bank holiday shutdown of UK air traffic control marked a shift, as the CAA had been due to report on the meltdown by the end of September.
The CAA move to set up an independent review chaired by Jeff Halliwell, former chair of slot coordinator Airport Coordination, suggests the pressure from airlines – not least Iata head Willie Walsh and Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary – has had an impact.
Halliwell will appoint two other panellists and then consider “whether Nats policies and protocols were adequately designed”, whether it “has appropriate resilience arrangements”, “how well Nats performs against its peers” and “lessons that should inform the framework for setting Nats performance targets and level of financial consequences”.
The review will also consider the impacts “in relation to delays and cancellations” and how airlines and airports “met their passenger rights obligations”, including “communication with affected passengers, timeliness of re-routeing and re-booking, costs passengers were expected to pay and reclaim, and management of vulnerable passengers”, plus how the costs of care, assistance and re-routeing are allocated.
An initial report, “including proposed next steps”, is now promised in January 2024.
The review will not form part of the CAA’s price control review of Nats, but the terms of reference note: “If the recommendations indicate we should consider changes to Nats price control arrangements we will take appropriate steps.”
Following the review, “the CAA will consider the findings and any further steps (such as enforcement action)”.
A senior airline source confirmed: “Pressure from the airlines had an impact. Nothing will move particularly fast, but the learnings will be important.”
The Nats system failure on August 28 was quite separate from the continuing ATC issues at Gatwick where a shortage of controllers has caused periodic delays and cancellations and threatens to continue into next year.
That is because Nats is split into two providers. Nats En-Route (NERL) provides UK ATC and is regulated by the CAA. Nats Services operates ATC at airports in the UK and overseas and is governed by commercial agreements between Nats and the individual airports.
Gatwick imposed a daily cap on the number of flights in late September with almost one third of the airport’s 30 ATC staff off sick, and subsequently extended it by a fortnight to Sunday October 15 in “a precautionary measure to prevent delays and last-minute cancellations”.
Nats took over Gatwick ATC in October last year following issues with the previous operator, having lost the airport contract in 2016. It has blamed a “significant shortfall in staff we inherited” for the current problems, though this is contested.
Airport controllers can’t simply move between airports, with the issue compounded at Gatwick by it having the world’s busiest single runway.
Nats argues: “The lack of resilience can be addressed only by recruiting and training additional controllers which takes considerable time.”
Gatwick said it expects “a full service for summer 2024”. That suggests the issue may return during peak periods this winter of it there is a spike in flu or Covid cases.
Ryanair, EasyJet and Loganair chiefs are to appear before MPs today (Wednesday) investigating the August bank holiday air traffic control failure.