A Major Repatriation Effort

The technical fault at NATS on 8 September 2026 triggered days of flight cancellations and delays across the UK. Jet2 was among the worst affected airlines, with around 7,200 customers requiring repatriation support at the height of the disruption.

To stabilise its operation, Jet2:

Deployed all available spare aircraft capacity
Operated more than a dozen additional flights from Greece, Turkey, Spain and Malta
Arranged ground transport and overnight hotel stays where needed
Mobilised staff from flight crews to customer support teams to work around the clock
Despite the disruption being caused by a national infrastructure failure, Jet2 emphasised that airlines were again left to “pick up the pieces” operationally and financially.

Full Refunds for Affected Customers

Jet2 confirmed that all customers whose flights or package holidays were cancelled will receive a full refund, processed automatically without the need for passengers to submit claims.

Jet2’s Warning: ‘Holidaymakers Deserve Better’

Jet2 CEO Steve Heapy condemned the latest outage as the third major failure in recent years, calling it:
“Completely unacceptable”
A failure of “critical national infrastructure”
A situation where “hardworking holidaymakers should never have been put in this position”
Heapy also highlighted the UK government’s 49% ownership stake in NATS, arguing that ministers have a direct responsibility to ensure the system is reliable and resilient.

Demand for Government Action

Jet2 is now calling for:
Urgent, clear action to improve NATS reliability
Proper answers from NATS leadership
A long term plan to prevent repeated failures that cause nationwide travel disruption
The airline says customers need confidence that their holidays will not be jeopardised by recurring technical faults, and airlines need certainty to operate without sudden, system wide shutdowns.

What This Means for Travellers

The latest NATS failure underscores a growing concern within the aviation industry: that UK air traffic control infrastructure is struggling to cope with modern demand.

Jet2’s intervention adds pressure on the government to act quickly, especially as peak travel seasons continue to expose vulnerabilities in the system.