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The boss of airline industry body IATA has blasted National Air Traffic Services (NATS) for the recent chaos at Britain’s airports – and demanded the company foots the bill for the disruption.
Willie Walsh, the head of the International Air Transport Association, which represents more than 300 of the world’s carriers, also questioned whether the firm should continue to hold responsibility for handling the UK’s flight traffic.
It comes after hundreds of flights were cancelled – and thousands of passengers left stranded – after a computer glitch on Bank Holiday Monday caused chaos at airports in the UK and abroad, with disruption expected to continue throughout the week.
NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe said “unreliable” flight data caused the disruption, although a full investigation into what went wrong is under way.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Mr Rolfe said: “I would like to apologise again for our technical failure yesterday.
“While we resolved the problem quickly, I am very conscious that the knock-on effects at such a busy time of year are still being felt by many people travelling in and out of the UK.”
But Mr Walsh, the former chief executive of British Airways owner IAG, said carriers were facing a potential bill of up to £100m due to the failure.
In an interview with Sky News, he called on NATS to clearly explain what caused the problem and said questions needed to be asked about the resilience of air traffic control computer systems.
He said: “They [NATS] should be held to account and they should pay for the expenses that have occurred… airlines are a victim in this situation, they’re not the cause of the problem.”
Read more:
What happened and how a repeat can be avoided
Why you’re not allowed off the plane if your flight is delayed
Am I entitled to compensation after air traffic control chaos?
Mr Walsh added: “At the…
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