Via a press conference in London today, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has confirmed that the airline will launch legal action against NATS.
Whilst announcing seven new routes out of the London area, the boss of the Irish low-cost carrier confirmed this to the press.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Ryanair Will Launch Legal Action Against NATS: O’Leary…
[monsterinsights_popular_posts_inline]
O’Leary went into quite some detail about NATS’ activity over the last four weeks, from the IT failure, all of the way through to this week’s flight cancellations at London Gatwick due to staff illness.
“The UK ATC failure on 28/29 August caused 2,000 cancellations alongside 5,000 delays for Ryanair”, he said to the press in a briefing.
He also confirmed that the two days of NATS disruption cost Ryanair £15m, and with this in mind, confirmed to journalists that the airline would be seeking legal action over this.
The Ryanair CEO also mentioned that he feels like the UK ATC system is the most inefficient in the Ryanair network, stating that “the French system is better when they’re not on strike”.
It is also understood that London Gatwick asked Ryanair to cancel flights due to ATC capacity issues, and that O’Leary personally rejected this request.
“NATS is staffed sufficiently, or overstaffed. However, they do not turn up to work”, he also said to journalists.
He also noted that NATS refused to disclose any staffing information to Ryanair, despite being one of their biggest airline customers.
AviationSource has approached NATS for a comment on this, and they declined to comment on the phone, but requested an email for comment.
This is a developing story.
Reporting by Thomas Saunders, Composed by James Field
Did you know AviationSource has two newsletters? One covers the general news and analysis of the industry as a whole, and the other to do with emergencies that take place throughout the year! To subscribe to our General News Newsletter, CLICK HERE!
To subscribe to our Emergencies, Accidents & Incidents Newsletter, CLICK HERE!
