According to a Reuters report published on October 26, airlines are expressing their displeasure with British aviation authorities over recent increases in charges for air traffic control services. NATS, the UK's air traffic control service provider, has implemented these increases in an attempt to recover costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
NATS has come under scrutiny due to an outage experienced late in the summer, resulting in thousands of flight cancellations and delays, which in turn cost airlines significant sums, as reported by Reuters, a British news service. Airlines UK, an industry trade advocacy group, criticized the price hikes, stating that they "simply cannot be justified while it remains unclear what action will be taken to ensure airlines and their customers do not see a repeat of this disruption."
Jonathan Hinkles, the Chief Executive of the British carrier Loganair, expressed his disappointment in a LinkedIn post, saying, "The expectation was that charges for 2024 would go back to normalized levels, plus inflation. Unfortunately, something’s gone badly wrong." On the other hand, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) argued that the new prices were designed to ensure the quality of service and safety.
However, the consortium Airlines for Europe, which includes the parent company of British Airways and the budget carrier Ryanair, conveyed their dissatisfaction to Reuters, stating that "raising prices after a monumental meltdown last summer is the very definition of rewarding failure."