However, hubs have warned that it would take time for operations to ‌return to normal after the disruption left aircraft in “the wrong places.”

The hours-long disruption has increased the pressure upon the NATS, with airlines ramping up their criticism of Britain’s aviation infrastructures, while the Andy Burnham government, taking a grim view of the situation, has summoned Martin Rolfe, the agency’s chief, to explain the shutdown.

The disruption resulted in the cancellation of 2,000 flights, apart from leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded at major airports across the European country.

Ryanair, Europe’s biggest airline, has called for Rolfe’s removal, while citing his role in the last system meltdown in August 2023, when cancelled flights cost operators 100 million pounds (USD 135 million).

Transport minister Heidi Alexander will reportedly hear directly from Rolfe after she summoned him to explain the fault, amid ​concerns over the resilience of the British aviation sector’s infrastructure and technological resilience.

As operations restarted, Heathrow Airport said passengers should check with their airline before heading to the airport, as schedules would have changed ‌due ⁠to the problems on Tuesday.

“We are expecting knock-on impacts as aircraft and crew reposition,” the UK’s busiest hub said in a statement.

“We know how frustrating this situation is and … are working closely with our ⁠local NATS team and airline partners to recover normal operations as quickly as possible.”

London Gatwick, Britain’s second busiest airport, remarked while advising passengers to ⁠check with their airline first.

While 150,000 Ryanair passengers got affected by the outage after it cancelled ⁠more than 200 flights, British Airways had to cancel and divert 100 flights, with another tens of thousands impacted.

Two of NATS’ previous operational glitches resulted in shutdowns in August 2023 and in July 2025. On both occasions, major airports, including Britain’s largest, Heathrow, got affected.

“I am seeking assurances that lessons will be learned and systems that support aviation are up to the job,” Alexander said on X (formerly Twitter).

Michael O’Leary, group CEO of Ryanair, told Reuters the outage was “an absolute rerun” of ​what happened in 2023, when a rogue flight plan caused the shutdown.

“Fire him. He’s been there since 2015. He is useless,” he said of ​Rolfe.

NATS said that the issue, which had impacted its flight data processing system, was resolved. It also dismissed talks about a potential cyber breach affecting its digital architecture.

“It was not the same issue as 2023. This one affected our flight data system at Swanwick. We will conduct a ‌full investigation ⁠to establish the root cause and identify any further action required,” a NATS spokesperson said.

“Recovery from today’s system issue has taken longer than we had hoped. Our system issue is now resolved; we are operating normally and working as hard as possible to clear the backlog of flights,” the agency further clarified on X.

The traffic control provider later said in another X update that it would take time to recover from the disruption, adding that “this ⁠has been a very complex recovery and has created difficulties for the entire aviation network.”

Rolfe also termed the cause of the disruption a new one. While speaking with the BBC Radio, he apologised for what had gone wrong without giving details of what had happened, apart from saying a cyberattack had been ruled out.

He later told Sky News that NATS had not “fully done the investigation” to find the reason behind the technical issue that caused the disruption.

“We don’t have an idea yet of exactly what went wrong,” the NATS boss remarked.

Airlines attack the NATS boss

Forgetting their fierce rivalry, European budget carriers Wizz Air and Ryanair came together to attack NATS and Rolfe while calling for an “overhaul” of the air traffic control provider.

“A critical national infrastructure provider should not repeatedly bring the aviation system to a standstill. NATS is simply not fit for purpose in its current form,” Wizz Air remarked.

“Following the 2023 collapse, we were told lessons would be learned. We were told that resilience would improve. We were told that the systems had been fixed. Yet here we are again,” Ryanair Chief Operations Officer Neal McMahon said.

As per Ryanair’s estimates, the losses from Tuesday’s outage were 3 million pounds so far, after it cancelled 260 flights affecting 48,000 passengers.

In 2024, Britain’s aviation regulator asked NATS to review its outage-related contingency plans after the automatic processing of flight plans malfunctioned a year earlier, causing chaos across the British airports.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) too jumped into the action on Tuesday by “getting in touch” with NATS over the incident and expects the latter to share a full report.

“We will then consider ⁠whether any further steps need to be taken to help secure the safe reliability of the UK’s air traffic control system,” a CAA spokesperson said.

The outage, as per the data from the flight-tracking website Flightradar24, caused the cancellation of 1,300 flights to and from the United Kingdom.

“Another 177 flights got cancelled for Wednesday, nearly all of them at Heathrow, the country’s largest airport,” it added.

Another data point on the flight-tracking platform FlightAware said some 490 departures were delayed at six airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Luton, Edinburgh, and Bristol, as of 1518 GMT Tuesday. Some 525 arrivals at those six airports were either cancelled or delayed.

British Airways on Tuesday cancelled/diverted 100 flights with tens of thousands impacted and said on Wednesday 190 flights had been ​cancelled as disruption continued.

NATS, a public-private partnership that ⁠is partially owned ​by airlines including British Airways and easyJet, pension funds, and the British government, paid its ​owners dividends of 175 million pounds in 2025.

Ryanair has decided to sue NATS at London’s High Court and is seeking over 7 million pounds over the 2023 outage.

The carrier, apart from aggressively pitching for the agency’s leadership overhaul, has called on NATS to reinvest its profits ​into performance improvements and hiring more staff.

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The weak results for Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, are the latest sign of how the five-month-old Iran war is putting massive pressure on aviation companies, especially budget carriers, by keeping the oil prices at elevated levels.

Setting aside the truce that was agreed upon last month, American forces hit Iran for a ninth consecutive day, with Tehran returning the favor with equal intensity. However, the nation’s foreign ⁠ministry also expressed eagerness to restart negotiations with Washington based on national interests. The geopolitical flip-flop has also resulted in extreme volatilities in oil prices.

“The price of our 20% unhedged fuel doubled in the quarter, and fares fell 6%, primarily we think due to the impact of the Middle East conflict and the timing of Easter,” Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said in a video presentation.

The Irish airline reported after-tax profit of 538 million euro (USD 616 million) for its fiscal first quarter through June 30, down 34% from the 2025 and short of a forecast of 579 million euro in a company poll of analysts. The airline also said it was too early to issue a full-year profit forecast, which would depend heavily on last-minute bookings over the remainder of the summer.

However, Ryanair still sees itself better positioned than most rivals because 80% of its fuel requirements to the end of March are hedged at USD 67 per barrel, compared to recent peaks around USD 150.

Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Neil Sorahan said the airline stepped in to hedge 15% of its fuel needs for the year-to-date-March 2028 at USD 85 per barrel ⁠following the June interim ceasefire between Iran and the United States.

“Weakness in fares is likely to be short-lived, however, as European aviation is facing a wave of consolidation and airlines going bust that will take out ⁠capacity. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a number of casualties this winter … there are a few people very much on the edge,” Sorahan said.

The Ryanair CFO also sees a significant capacity cut in Europe in the coming months, which, as per him, “could be positive ⁠for pricing, and a lot more may be taken out in summer 2027.”

“The possible sale of British rival easyJet, which is the subject of a bidding war, could also lead to a reduction in capacity and could trigger a domino effect of consolidation in Europe,” Sorahan said.

Talking about the impact of the surging oil prices on the UK aviation circle, Irish airline Aer Lingus could cut up to 500 jobs as part of a reorganization, citing high costs and a challenging economic ‌environment.

“The airline, which has already cut senior management roles by a quarter, plans to reduce wider employee costs by about the same ⁠level while making network changes to remove lower-margin flying,” it said last week.

That would lower the carrier’s overall capacity by 6%, including some long-haul and short-haul routes, it said, adding that it was also focused on reducing supplier costs.

Aer Lingus’ parent company, London-listed IAG, issued a profit warning in May 2026, cautioning that high jet fuel ‌costs ⁠and supply disruptions due to the war would weigh more heavily on earnings than previously expected.

“Our accelerated transformation aims to … ensure the airline is a strong investment case and able to weather the ⁠turbulence in our industry,” Aer Lingus Chief Executive Lynne Embleton remarked.

The airline, which operates over 100 routes between Europe ⁠and North America, is aiming for an operating margin of 12%-15% over the medium term to attract investment.

The post Iran war: Higher fuel costs weigh on UK carriers’ earnings outlook appeared first on International Finance.

The Ryanair CEO informed the BBC that during the next five years, the airline’s average fare would increase from approximately €40 (£33.75) last year to approximately €50.

But despite the increased expense of living, he asserts that he thinks people will continue to fly regularly.

On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Michael O’Leary said, “You won’t see those fares for the next couple of years at the bottom end of the marketplace, our extremely cheap promotional fares — the one euro fares, the €0.99 fares, even the €9.99 fares.”

The increase in household energy prices that is driving up airfares is also reducing people’s discretionary incomes. The airline’s CEO however stated that he anticipates customers to look for less expensive alternatives as opposed to reducing their flying schedule.

“We predict that individuals will keep taking frequent flights. However, I believe that individuals will become much more price sensitive, and as a result, in my opinion, people will trade down from their many millions,” Michael O’Leary added.

In recent years, as air travel has grown more affordable, more people have taken flights in addition to having annual holidays and short trips overseas. In order to provide low-cost, no-frills services, airlines like Ryanair, Easyjet, Vueling, and Wizz Air have competed.

Commercial aviation presently contributes 2.4% of the world’s CO2 emissions, and there is pressure on the industry to lessen its influence on the environment through initiatives like campaigns to encourage rail and road travel.

The focus on lowering emissions from air travel, according to Michael O’Leary, was “misplaced,” and he asserted that shipping and road transport contributed to CO2 emissions more significantly overall.

Although Ryanair was making investments in more fuel-efficient planes, he claimed that switching from gasoline and diesel to electric road vehicles would result in far bigger reductions in the consumption of fossil fuels.

People have shown an eagerness to board planes after the COVID pandemic, which significantly hampered international travel.

However, as demand for air travel has increased, staff shortages at airports and airlines have resulted in delays and cancellations, both domestically and internationally. Some travellers have been required to wait for hours or make last-minute travel arrangements.

People have demonstrated a strong desire to board aircraft following the COVID pandemic, which severely interrupted international travel.

Staffing issues at airports and airlines have caused delays and cancellations, both in the UK and abroad, as demand for air travel has increased. Some travellers have been required to wait for hours or abruptly reschedule their travel plans.

Michael O’Leary claimed that he had “very little sympathy” for airports, claiming that they were aware of schedules months in advance and that security personnel, who were under their control, needed less training than pilots.

He charged Heathrow with “mismanagement” for limiting the number of travellers using the airport this summer.

The cap has been supported by Heathrow, who claimed that it was required to deliver dependable and secure service.

According to the Airport Operators Association, airports have been hiring workers since the end of last year, and the majority of passengers are currently travelling with little to no inconvenience.

Although Michael O’Leary expressed “hope” that the issues at UK airports will be rectified by next summer, he warned that Brexit would continue to make it difficult to find qualified candidates.

Despite having its headquarters in Dublin, Ryanair offers hundreds of routes to and from the UK.

He said that Britain’s exit from the EU had been a “disaster for the free movement of labour” and urged the government to “be honest and own up” to its role in the labour shortages.

Michael O’Leary asserted that the UK labour market was “fundamentally broken” and that it was time for the country to think about undoing “some of the foolishness of Brexit.”

The future UK prime minister should, according to him, make a free trade agreement with the EU, which includes labour mobility, a top priority.

The post Is the era of cheap flights over? appeared first on International Finance.