Thousands more passengers saw flights cancelled on Monday, as Ryanair called for the chief executive of National Air Traffic Services (NATS) to be sacked over staff absences.
Around 20 EasyJet and British Airways flights from Gatwick were axed on Monday, leaving at least 3,200 travellers stranded.
It came after air traffic control (ATC) staff shortages and bad weather grounded more than 100 flights on Sunday.
Yesterday, 53 departing flights – 13 per cent of all scheduled take-offs – were cancelled due to ATC staff absences at Gatwick, with 52 arrivals shelved – 12 per cent of the total.
Separately, British Airways have also cancelled dozens of flights to and from Heathrow since Friday.
NATS said short-notice worker absence in the air traffic control towers at Gatwick and Heathrow led to restrictions being put in place.
It is the third time in less than a year that air traffic control staff shortages have led to cancellations at Gatwick.
Labour MP Fabian Hamilton, who is standing to be chair of the Transport Select Committee, told i the staff shortages were a symptom of the previous Government’s “failure on wages, jobs and training”.
The MP for Leeds North East called for NATS and Sir Keir Starmer’s Government to find “a long-term solution”.
He said: “Passengers deserve a much more efficient and reliable service from our airports.
“It’s vital that NATS works with our airports, passengers and the government to find a long term solution.”
Ryanair demanded NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe resign or be sacked by the Government over “the latest in a long line of cock-ups” affecting Gatwick passengers.
A spokesperson for the airline said: “UK NATS staff shortages caused multiple flight delays and cancellations at Gatwick airport yesterday (Sunday).
“Airlines and passengers deserve better. Ryanair again calls on UK NATS CEO, Martin Rolfe, to step down and allow someone competent to run an efficient UK ATC service, which airlines and passengers are entitled to expect.
“If he won’t go, then new Transport Minister, Louise Haigh, should sack him.”
A NATS spokesperson said temporary air traffic restrictions were put in place on Sunday at Gatwick to maintain safety.
“These restrictions were due to short-notice staff absence at the air traffic control tower and in addition to existing restrictions already in place due to adverse weather across UK and Europe,” the spokesperson said.
“All restrictions were lifted by the end of the day.
“There are no staff-related restrictions in place at the air traffic control tower Gatwick today.”
Apologising for the inconvenience, the air traffic control provider insisted they had tried to keep disruption to a minimum.
But EasyJet said it was “extremely disappointed” that Gatwick passengers were still being affected on Monday by the knock-on effect of ATC staff absences.
An EasyJet spokesperson said: “We are extremely disappointed that customers are once again being impacted by this and while this is outside of our control, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused.
“We are doing all possible to minimise the impact of the disruption and have notified those on cancelled flights of their options to rebook or receive a refund and are providing hotel accommodation and meals where required.”
An air traffic restriction was also planned from 8pm at Heathrow Airport on Sunday due to short-notice staff absence, a NATS spokesperson added.
“This was in addition to existing regulations already in place due to the adverse weather across the UK and Europe.
“We were able to resolve the staffing issue, removing the need for the restriction before implementing it.
“Regrettably, some airlines had already had to make flight cancellations to accommodate the weather and staffing restrictions and we apologise for the disruption that this has caused to the airport, airlines and passengers.”
NATS added their training pipeline for new air traffic controllers was “as full as it possibly can be”, with all the training positions in their college and at their units “at capacity”.
Last September, thousands of passengers were stranded overnight after cancellations, delays and diverted flights due to a shortage of ATC staff at Gatwick.
NATS told i at the time that new air traffic controllers had been recruited since summer 2022, increasing their numbers by 17 per cent, with others due to start after completing their training.
Aviation analytics firm Cirium said a combination of poor weather and air traffic control restrictions led to a surge in cancellations last week.
Some 427 departures were cancelled from UK airports, a leap of 223 per cent on the previous week.
Gatwick said flights were running smoothly on Monday with minimal disruption and that NATS had successfully increased the number of air traffic controllers over recent months.
The NATS service had been fully available more than 99.6 per cent of the time, operating 24 hours a day, they added.
Heathrow said the airport was operating as normal on Monday.
A British Airways spokesperson said they had made some small adjustments to their schedule because of air traffic control restrictions caused by adverse weather.