Nats chief says he felt like Britain’s most disliked person after flight disruption

Martin Rolfe, the CEO of Nats, stated at an aviation conference that he considered himself the most disliked person in the UK following two technical failures in September that disrupted flights for hundreds of thousands of passengers. Despite facing intense pressure and demands for his resignation from airline bosses, including Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary, Rolfe said he had no intention of stepping down and enjoyed ignoring the calls to quit. The system outages caused severe travel disruptions, with the September 8 failure alone costing airlines tens of millions of pounds and leading to a government-commissioned inquiry. While Rolfe maintained that the specific technical faults have been fixed and will not recur, he acknowledged the heavy personal responsibility that comes with the role and noted that a government review of the findings is underway.