Thousands more passengers face disruption at UK airports as dozens more flights grounded on 3rd day of tech glitch chaos

THOUSANDS more passengers are facing disruption at UK airports with dozens of flights grounded as the tech glitch fallout continues. Calls are growing for Britain’s air traffic control boss to resign as the chaos – which has seen more than 2,000 flights cancelled – enters day three. Passengers have been sleeping at airports overnight, picutred here at Heathrow Credit: Lee Thomas Roughly 300,000 passengers have been affected following Tuesday’s meltdown Credit: Lee Thomas Experts have warned the disruption could drag on for weeks after a major failure at the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) Swanwick control centre. Roughly 300,000 passengers have been affected following Tuesday’s meltdown, believed to be an issue with the flight-processing system. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! But the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has warned compensation is unlikley – as it launches a probe into the glitch. And the chaos has now spilled into its third day – with dozens further flights cancelled across the country. Experts have warned the disruption could drag on for weeks Credit: Lee Thomas An arrivals board shows cancelled flights at Gatwick Airport on Tuesday Credit: Getty Some 51 services have been axed already today, with Heathrow alone suffering 28 cancellations. Seven departing flights and 21 arrivals have been cancelled at Europe’s biggest airport – much to the agony of devastated holidaymakers. The disruption has also hit Gatwick, which faces 11 grounded flights, and Glasgow, with five services impacted. London City, Manchester, Luton and Aberdeen are also among the 15 NATS-controlled airports to face disruption. Most read in The Sun Martin Rolfe, 51, the NATS senior executive is now facing pressure to quit following the disruption – marking his third catastrophic failure as chief. Rolfe was paid £1.5 million, including £871,000 in bonuses, last year, but is now facing questions over his future. He has been accused of overseeing a “litany of failures” during his time as CEO of the UK’s air traffic control services. He previously faced turbulence in 2023 when he oversaw his first failure in air traffic control which affected more than 250,000 passengers. Martin Rolfe, 51, the NATS senior executive is now facing pressure to quit Credit: Alamy Rolfe said there will be a ‘very, very thorough investigation’ into the technical problem Credit: Shutterstock Editorial Another incident under Rolfe’s leadership affected hundreds of flights in July 2025 and was blamed on a radar-related failure. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander demanded Rolfe launch a rapid review into this week’s chaos. She told MPs yesterday afternoon that she did not believe the most recent air traffic control issue was “unavoidable.” Rolfe said there will be a “very, very thorough investigation” into the technical problem behind the widespread disruption. He also “ruled out” a cyber attack as the cause of the outage. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “We have at this point ruled out cyber, we don’t believe it was a cyber attack. “My focus and that of the team has been on both getting our system operating back up normally, which it is now. “But there’s obviously a huge tail to the disruption and we’ll be working on that.” The issue emerged at around 1pm on Tuesday and, while now fixed, NATS has warned delays will continue as it tries to “clear a backlog of flights.” Rolfe – who has held his position since 2015 – is facing growing calls to quit. On the day of the latest failure, Ryanair chief operations officer Neal McMahon said the NATS boss must resign. In a statement issued online he said: “They have a crap system and they don’t invest in it. “Instead of investing in the system, they pay big bonuses to management and they pay huge dividends to the shareholders.” While the boss of Wizz Air UK Yvonne Moynihan suggested Rolfe had finally struck out following the third failure. She told BBC Radio 4: “I think in any industry, when you’ve had three failures, you need to consider that three strikes and you’re out.” But Downing Street says Rolfe still has the confidence of the Government, despite the most recent disaster. Comment now