Thousands of passengers impacted by delays at Gatwick airport due to a lack of air traffic control staff

Thousands of airline passengers have been impacted by cancelled, delayed or diverted flights due to a lack of air traffic control staff (ATC) at Gatwick airport.

The airport confirmed a short notice staff absence in its ATC tower, managed by National Air Traffic Services (Nats), which meant 22 flights were axed, some were sent to other locations and dozens were heavily delayed on Thursday.

More than 3,000 passengers are likely to have been affected by cancellations.

It comes just over two weeks after a Nats technical glitch caused widespread disruption at airports across the UK, leaving thousands of holidaymakers stranded overseas for several days.

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has called on Nats chief executive to resign, while easyJet said it is “very disappointed” its customers have been affected again.

Mr O’Leary said: “It is unacceptable that more flights and hundreds of passengers are suffering delays to/from Gatwick Airport due to Nats CEO Martin Rolfe’s blatant failure to adequately staff UK ATC.

“Airlines are paying millions of pounds to Nats each and every year and should not have to see their passengers suffer avoidable delays due to UK ATC staff shortages.”

An easyJet spokesperson said: “We are very disappointed that customers are once again impacted by this and while this is outside of our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused to our customers.

“We are doing all possible to minimise the impact of the disruption, notifying those on cancelled flights of options to rebook or receive a refund and provided hotel accommodation and meals where required.”

Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of Advantage Travel Partnership – a network of independent travel agents, said: “The situation at Gatwick is