Passengers affected by this week's air traffic control failure, including tens of thousands who passed through Heathrow, are unlikely to receive compensation, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has confirmed, as it emerged that ministers rejected a plan to make NATS reimburse airlines for passenger costs months before the outage hit.
A technical fault in NATS' flight processing system on Tuesday 8 September disrupted air traffic control services across the country, hitting Heathrow hardest along with Gatwick, Bristol and Manchester. More than 1,750 flights were cancelled that day, and British Airways alone cancelled almost 550 flights affecting more than 85,000 passengers, most of them through Heathrow. NATS has said the knock-on disruption could continue for several days.
In a statement, a CAA spokesperson said: "We consider that disruption caused by the NATS outage is likely to be considered the result of 'extraordinary circumstances' under passenger rights rules. This means that although passengers should be looked after by airlines, they are unlikely to be entitled to compensation for delays or cancellations that were directly caused by the incident."
Separately, The Register reported on Thursday that the government had opposed a proposed amendment that would have required NATS to reimburse airlines for compensation costs arising from its failures, months before this week's outage. Liberal Democrat MP Luke Taylor raised the rejected amendment during a House of Commons debate on the disruption.
Airlines UK, the trade body representing British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair and Virgin Atlantic, has written to Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander warning that the financial fallout from the fault "will run into tens of millions of pounds, falling entirely on airlines" under the current liability framework. Ryanair has called for NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign.
NATS is a public-private partnership in which the government holds a 49 per cent stake and a consortium of airlines holds 42 per cent. This is the third major NATS computer failure in three years. Alexander has ordered an independent CAA review of the incident within six months and told MPs she does not believe the failure was unavoidable.
For travellers passing through Heathrow this week, the practical advice has not changed: check your flight status with your airline before setting off, and if you were delayed or rerouted, contact your airline directly about care and rebooking rather than assuming a statutory compensation payment. Given the CAA's 'extraordinary circumstances' guidance, claims for cash compensation are likely to be refused, though airlines remain obliged to cover meals, accommodation and alternative travel where a flight was cancelled or significantly delayed.
If your journey plans are still in flux because of the disruption, it is worth reviewing your options for getting to and from the airport, including our guide to [Heathrow taxis](/taxis/), before you travel.