By Basant El-Faramawy
A failure of air traffic control systems in September cost the UK economy an estimated £33 million, according to a new report from the Cyber Monitoring Centre (CMC). The disruption at National Air Traffic Services (NATS) on 8 September led to more than 2,000 flight cancellations and affected hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Financial Impact Details
The CMC said airlines absorbed more than three-quarters of the financial impact, while NATS lost less than £1 million in route charges. The £33 million figure covers costs to UK airlines, airports, ground operators and tour operators from cancellations, delays and diversions. Including overseas airlines, the loss ranges between £48 million and £76 million.
Cause and Safety
The incident was placed in the "lowest impact" category on the CMC's five-point scale. It was caused by a previously unknown defect in legacy software and was not malicious. Ciaran Martin, chairman of the CMC technical committee, said safety was maintained throughout and compared the outage to the 2024 CrowdStrike incident, highlighting how a fault in a single system can spread disruption.
Subsequent Disruption and Aftermath
A second, unrelated air traffic issue less than two weeks later caused further disruption and more than 170 flight cancellations. NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe resisted calls to resign, including from Ryanair. A NATS spokesperson said the organisation noted the CMC's statement but would not comment, as the Civil Aviation Authority is conducting an independent review.
