Jet2 CEO Steve Heapy has sharply criticized UK air traffic control provider Nats and the government over last week’s outage, calling it “completely unacceptable.” This marks the third such failure in as many years.
Heapy stated that travel companies and their customers should not be left to “pick up the pieces” when aspects of what he described as “critical national infrastructure” fail. He demanded “proper answers” and highlighted the impact on Jet2, with over 7,000 customers affected at the peak of the disruption on September 8.
The government has given Nats CEO Martin Rolfe a week to explain the incident, which led to the cancellation of more than 2,000 flights. Jet2 has called for “urgent, clear action” to improve Nats so holidaymakers “can look forward to their trips without the fear of critical infrastructure failures causing unnecessary stress, delays and uncertainty.”
To mitigate the impact, Jet2 operated more than a dozen additional flights using “all available spare aircraft capacity” and drafted in extra teams to bring customers home from Greece, Turkey, Spain, and Malta. The airline also arranged overnight hotel accommodations, where possible, for stranded passengers.
Despite the disruption being caused by a national infrastructure issue, the burden falls on airlines operationally and financially to sort out. Jet2 has pledged full refunds to affected passengers.
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Heapy said, “This latest failure caused significant disruption to thousands of our customers through no fault of their own, and once again airlines, colleagues and customers were left to pick up the pieces because critical national infrastructure failed. That is completely unacceptable and holidaymakers deserve much better.”
He also noted the government’s responsibility, given its 49% ownership of Nats, and called for accountability. “The government has a direct responsibility given its 49% ownership of Nats, and with customers needing confidence and airlines needing certainty, proper answers are required following this latest failure,” he said.
Heapy praised Jet2’s workforce, stating, “Our teams went above and beyond to look after customers, get people home and recover our operation.” He added, “By arranging extra flying and deploying every available resource, we have been able to help thousands of customers return home as quickly as possible.”
However, he stressed that such situations should never arise. “Hardworking holidaymakers should never have been put in this position in the first place,” he concluded.