Air traffic control boss says he was ‘most disliked person in the UK’ after flight chaos

Nats chief says he ‘quite enjoyed’ ignoring calls from Ryanair CEO to quit over system outages in September

The boss of Nats has said he was “the most disliked person in the UK” after air traffic control systems failed twice in September, disrupting flights for hundreds of thousands of passengers.

He told an aviation industry conference: “My name is Martin Rolfe, I’m the CEO of Nats – or as I like to think of myself, the most disliked person in the UK in September.”

Airlines led by Ryanair called for Rolfe’s resignation after two technical failures in a fortnight at the two control centres run by Nats (National Air Traffic Control Services) stopped flights taking off and landing.