- Flight disruption that caused chaos for hundreds of thousands of passengers has eased on Thursday with schedules set to return to normal later.
- On Wednesday, O'Leary called Rolfe's position "untenable" and he is likely to issue further criticism when he hosts Ryanair's annual general meeting at its headquarters close to Dublin airport later on Thursday.
- The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said passengers are "unlikely to be entitled to compensation for delays or cancellations that were directly caused by the incident", as the disruption is likely to be considered 'extraordinary circumstances' under passenger rights rules.
- According to aviation analytics company Cirium, cancellations were slowing, with no flights cancelled for Thursday, and some 2,145 flights were affected over the last two days, with 399 flights cancelled or not flying on Wednesday.
- The worst affected airport was London Heathrow, which saw 79 out of a total of 666 departure flights affected, and British Airways was the worst affected airline, with 88 of its 507 flights scheduled to depart on Wednesday affected.
- Multiple American military aircraft suffered damage in strikes overnight on the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, according to CBS reporter Jennifer Jacobs.
- One A-10 Thunderbolt, known as the Warthog, was struck and left with a missing wing, while roughly eight F-15s sustained light damage and were placed back into service.
Flight disruptions in the UK have significantly eased, with only a handful of flights canceled or delayed on Thursday, following a chaotic week that saw over 2,000 flights affected due to technical issues with air traffic control systems.12
The National Air Traffic Services (Nats) faced severe criticism, particularly from Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair, who labeled Martin Rolfe's position as 'untenable.' O'Leary is expected to amplify his criticism during Ryanair's annual general meeting later today.3
According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, 399 flights were canceled or did not operate on Wednesday alone, with London Heathrow being the worst affected airport, where 79 out of 666 departure flights were impacted.678910
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) stated that passengers are unlikely to receive compensation for delays or cancellations directly caused by the incident, citing 'extraordinary circumstances' under passenger rights rules.45
As the situation stabilizes, airlines are working to restore normal operations, with expectations that flight schedules will return to normal later today.
“Cirium reports 2,145 flights affected over two days, with 399 cancelled Wednesday and none Thursday. The CAA says passengers are unlikely to get compensation, citing 'extraordinary circumstances' from the Nats outage.”
