Transport secretary Heidi Alexander told MPs she did not believe the air traffic control problems that have caused chaos for passengers were “unavoidable” and said she had asked the Civil Aviation Authority to conduct an independent review.

She told the Commons:

A four-hour air traffic outage yesterday left hundreds of thousands of passengers facing cancellations, diversions and delays. I would like to apologise wholeheartedly to passengers for this disruption.

We often take for granted the way in which our aviation system just works, but yesterday that was not the case. Safety must remain air traffic controllers’ overriding priority and this morning I have spoken to Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe, who informed me this outage was due to a technical issue at their Swanwick site.

So, while my understanding from Nats is that we can rule out a cyber attack on this occasion, I do not believe this issue was unavoidable.

Alexander added:

We also spoke this morning about how Nats responded to resolve and minimise the disruption as quickly as possible, and I am grateful to the airports and airlines who responded straight away.

But I am clear that passengers should not have to face this disruption. I have therefore asked the CAA to conduct an independent review to establish cause and ensure that our air traffic control systems can get passengers to where they need to be and this … review will report to me within six months.

Martin Rolfe, the boss of Britain’s main air traffic control provider, has the confidence of the government – but has to deliver a report on the full investigation into yesterday’s technical glitch in a week’s time, Downing Street has said.

There have been calls for Nats CEO to resign or be sacked, as more than 2,000 flights have been cancelled to and from UK airports over the last two days.

The prime minister’s official spokesman told reporters:

You’ve seen this morning that the transport secretary [Heidi Alexander] met the chief of National Air Traffic Service (Nats) to raise significant concerns at the scale of disruption on behalf of both passengers and industry.

She’s asked him to carry out a full investigation into what happened to make sure that lessons are learned, so that this doesn’t happen again. She set a deadline for them to report back in a week’s time.

And through our Civil Aviation Bill, which returns to Parliament today, we will make sure air passengers get stronger protection of rights around cancellations, delays, and passenger support.

Asked whether Alexander and the prime minister still have confidence in Nats chief Martin Rolfe, the spokesman said:

Well, you’ve got the transport secretary’s instruction to the Nats CEO.

I think it’s self-evident that she wants answers and the full investigation to be reported back in a week’s time, and she’s got confidence in him to deliver that.

Pressed whether this meant the Government’s confidence in the head of air traffic control was conditional on the outcome of the investigation, the spokesman replied:

We have confidence in him and he’s been tasked with the investigation, which will report in a week’s time.

The total number of flights cancelled as a result of yesterday’s Nats outage has risen to more than 2,000, according to the aviation analytics company Cirium.

8 September: More than 1,700 flight movements were impacted: 903 departures and 843 arrivals. 30.10% were canceled or did not fly, out of 5,800 scheduled.

9 September: So far, today 291 flights are cancelled: 120 departures and 171 arrivals, around 5% of the 5,869 scheduled. A normal day is between 1-2%.

Drivers’ cabs in all London buses will have air conditioning by next summer, Transport for London has announced.

Drivers had been left sweltering in extreme heat with unions claiming temperatures reaching 50C for drivers on older buses.

A threatened strike by Arriva drivers in a north London depot was called off this week after securing agreement to tackle the issue.

Now TfL has agreed to ensure all buses across the capital are retrofitted with A/C and better ventilation by the end of May 2027.

TfL said new buses entering the fleet were subject to more rigorous air standards than older vehicles, and that significant progress has already been made retrofitting the driver’s cab of a New Routemaster – the Boris Johnson acquisition nicknamed the Roastmaster.

Solar film to screen out UV rays and better seating for drivers are among aother measures being explored.

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, welcomed the news, and said:

This is personal to me. I want to thank our bus drivers for all their work keeping London moving during this unprecedented summer of heat.”

The Unite union said its members had suffered problems including heatstroke, dehydration and fatigue. General secretary Sharon Graham said:

Inadequate cooling systems in buses have left bus drivers having to endure appalling conditions this summer. This concession from TfL is an important win.

The union said that there had been “years of false promises” and warned it would “not allow bus drivers to suffer through another hot summer.”

In other news, Channel 4 has confirmed it is to make the biggest round of layoffs in its 43-year history, cutting 340 jobs, 28% of the broadcaster’s current workforce.

The scale of the cuts, which the Guardian revealed on Tuesday, mean that Channel 4 currently employs 1,214 full time equivalent staff, slightly less than the 1,276 published in its annual report for 2025.

Priya Dogra, who took over from Alex Mahon as chief executive in March, told staff on Wednesday that the job losses formed part of a restructure to “greatly reduce non-programming spend”.

Channel 4 said that the roles would be cut by the end of the year with proposed changes focused on reducing management layers, simplifying decision-making and removing duplication to “create a leaner, more efficient operating model.

Today marks the first day in our transformation, ensuring Channel 4 is the right shape and size to deliver its future strategy and focus investment in the programmes audiences love,” said Dogra. “I know the proposals we are announcing today will be very difficult for many colleagues and will have a significant impact across the organisation. Many talented people who have made an enormous contribution to Channel 4 will be leaving as a result.

The cuts will bring Channel 4’s head count down from record levels to 874, assuming this level is maintained, much closer to the scale the broadcaster has historically hovered between 800 and 850.

According to the annual report, Channel 4 employs 255 full-time equivalent staff in the commercial department, 423 in creative roles, 542 in operations and 56 at its 4Talent arm.

Given that Channel 4 has only just delivered on a promise to increase employee numbers in the nations and regions to 600, it is unclear where the job cuts will come from.

Discussions would need to be held with the culture secretary and government as the nations and regions staffing pledge was made as part of Channel 4’s successful defence against privatisation.

Martin Rolfe, the chief executive of National Air Traffic Services, has been summoned by the UK transport secretary Heidi Alexander this morning to answer questions about yesterday’s system issue that has led to widespread flight chaos.

Ryanair, the UK’s largest airline, has called Alexander to sack Rolfe, after the UK boss of Wizz Air urged him to consider resigning.

Ryanair highlighted the frequent and repeated failures of the Nats air traffic control system under Rolfe’s leadership – failures that are not replicated in any other EU air traffic control provider. It said yesterday’s problem, described as a “flight plan processing failure,” was the same as the one that caused a system outage in August 2023, when Rolfe promised this would not happen again.

Yesterday’s latest NATS system failure shows that the primary system is unreliable, and the backup system is useless.

Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:

Martin Rolfe’s position as NATS CEO is untenable. We don’t need more ‘investigations’, we don’t need more “reports”, and we don’t need another parliamentary committee hearing where Martin Rolfe will promise change, will promise resilience, and will promise an effective backup system. Martin Rolfe is an overpaid (£1.4m p.a.) failure. It is time for his removal, and it is time that somebody competent was appointed to run UK ATC, which is one of Europe’s most expensive ATC systems, and yet it keeps repeatedly failing.

Under Martin Rolfe’s watch, UK NATS has spent more money paying dividends to its shareholders (the UK Govt and UK airlines), but it has failed to invest in a resilient primary system, has failed to invest in an effective backup system, and as yesterday’s events show now UK NATS keeps failing under Martin Rolfe’s leadership.

Transport Minister Heidi Alexander, who owns 49% of NATS, must today demand that failing Martin Rolfe must quit, or be dismissed. Airlines and passengers serving the UK keep picking up the tab for Martin Rolfe’s repeated failures. It is time for this expensive, failing CEO to go, and allow UK NATS to be led by somebody competent and capable of delivering a resilient system and a backup system that actually works.

Petrol and diesel prices at the pump have also gone up, according to the AA and RAC motoring groups.

The AA said petrol prices have gone up by 4.4p a litre since the Bank Holiday last week. Diesel is up 4.1p a litre since 1 September. Yesterday, the two fuels averaged 166.2 and 187.7p a litre respectively.

The RAC said the average price of unleaded has increased by 5p a litre in just the last week to reach 167.17p, while diesel has gone up by the same amount to 188.63p. This means the cost of filling a family-size car has increased by £2.75 over this short period.

RAC senior policy officer Rod Dennis said:

Drivers are having to dig ever deeper into their pockets every time they fill up, and there’s no sign of any relief yet. With the cost of a barrel of oil having averaged $96 for the last week, wholesale prices are surging and that’s already feeding through to prices at the forecourt.

The latest price rises throw into sharp focus just how exposed UK drivers can be to events thousands of miles away, and will likely increase calls for the chancellor to demonstrate support for households already struggling with the rising cost of living. As things stand, fuel duty – which, together with tax, accounts for half of the cost of every litre of petrol we buy - is set to start rising from January but we believe there is a very strong case for leaving it at its current level, at least until the end of the parliament.

With no end to the US/Iran conflict in sight, there’s little drivers can do to protect themselves from rising prices, apart from driving as efficiently as possible.

Luke Bosdet, the AA’s spokesman on pump prices, said:

Once again, with petrol wholesale costs shooting up to their highest since the Ukraine war, we can see average pump prices wasting no time in reflecting that. However, there are savings to be made by those drivers prepared to use the Fuel Finder tools now available to them.

However, what also irritates drivers in England, Scotland and Wales is the persistent 6p gap between what they pay on average for fuel and the cheaper petrol and diesel in Northern Ireland. AA analysis of yesterday’s prices registered with Fuel Finder shows that, in fact, hundreds of fuel stations on the mainland manage to retail fuel at prices on a par with Northern Ireland.

The trouble is, as the Competition and Markets Authrity reported, the vast majority choose to over-price petrol and diesel at the expense of commuters, families and businesses. Little wonder that electric vehicle sales have been booming this summer.

Energy companies BP, Shell and British Gas parent Centrica are among the main risers on the FTSE 100 index today, as the oil price surged through $100 a barrel, for the first time since 24 July.

Centrica shares are up 2.1%, BP has gained 1.5% and Shell is 0.9% ahead.

The wider FTSE 100 index is trading lower, down 0.6% or 66 points at 10,745. The German, French, Italian and Spanish indices have fallen even more, between 1.1% and 1.9%.

Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at the trading platform capital.com, said:

Markets remain on the defensive as the latest escalation in the Middle East pushes Brent to $100 a barrel. US forces have struck Iranian oil tankers following attempted attacks on US naval vessels, while Iran retaliated against a US-used base in Jordan and says it targeted vessels attempting to cross the strait of Hormuz. Houthi attacks on Saudi energy facilities have widened the threat further, raising concerns that disruption could spread beyond Iranian supply to the infrastructure and alternative routes that have helped keep Gulf crude flowing.

That has brought the inflationary consequences of the conflict firmly back into focus. Wall Street fell on Tuesday as higher crude revived concerns that the energy shock could stall disinflation and force central banks to remain restrictive. US rate expectations have shifted accordingly, while upcoming inflation data will be particularly important in determining whether $100 oil is beginning to feed more materially into the Fed[eral Reserve] outlook.

Europe faces an even more immediate policy test with the European Central Bank meeting on Thursday. Markets are widely positioned for a 25 basis point hike, after the ECB explicitly warned in July that the full inflationary impact of the energy shock had yet to emerge. The latest surge in oil, and European gas prices, makes that concern harder to dismiss. Focus will be on Christine Lagarde’s guidance on whether this is sufficient insurance against the energy shock or whether further tightening remains likely.

UK and European gas prices have risen to a multi-year highs, while the oil price jumped above $100 a barrel.

The escalating Middle East conflict, cooler weather and rising Asian gas prices has led to aggressive gas buying ahead of the winter.

The benchmark Dutch gas contract leapt nearly 4% to €78.73 per megawatt hour, the highest since January 2023.

The British contract rose 7.77 pence 196.57p per therm, the highest since late December 2022.

In oil markets, Brent crude surged through $100 a barrel for the first time since July, rising 2.7% to $100.68 a barrel.

European gas stores are only 67% full, compared to 79.5% a year ago, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe.

Analysts at HSBC are forecasting that European stock levels will reach 73% by 1 November, the lowest since data collection began in 2009, and do not expect Qatari liquefied natural gas exports, excluding damaged facilities, to return to normal until early next year at the earliest.

In total, more 1,900 flights had been cancelled by 5am today, according to the aviation analytics company Cirium, since yesterday’s system issue at National Air Traffic Services.

Nats provides air traffic control services to 15 UK airports. While the technical problem has been resolved, the flight chaos has continued into a second day. Other flights have been delayed, causing chaos for tens of thousands of passengers travelling to and from the UK.

Cirium says:

8 September: More than 1,750 flights arriving into and departing from UK airports were cancelled — 902 departures and 860 arrivals, out of 5,800 scheduled. A normal day is under 1–2%.

9 September: So far, 153 flights are cancelled — 55 departures and 98 arrivals. Just over 3%.

The UK boss of Wizz Air has urged Martin Rolfe to consider resigning over the repeated technical failures at National Air Traffic Services.

Yvonne Moynihan, the managing director of Wizz Air UK, said Wizz Air had 24 cancellations on Tuesday and more than 21 flights had long delays, so over 10,000 passengers coming in and out of London were disrupted at the Hungarian budget carrier alone.

“It’s completely unacceptable that the travelling public has to pay for this,” told BBC radio 4’s Today programme.

This is now the third time that we have had an ATC [air traffic control] failure, and during the peak period as well. So major questions need to be asked. At the moment, of course, the immediate priority is getting passengers to their destinations. But the longer term question really is understanding what exactly has happened and how has this happened on three different occasions? There are serious questions about the resilience of the system.

Asked whether the Nats boss should resign, she said:

In any industry when you’ve had three failures you need to consider three strikes and you’re out. It’s certainly something that he needs to look at.

A third time and a third excuse is not enough any more. What we need to see from leadership is accountability. There are serious questions about the resilience of the system.

I think Nats and the leadership need to look deep inside themselves.

What we need to see from the leadership is accountability and reassurance that we won’t face these repeated failures.

Brent crude has just hit $100 a barrel for the first time since 24 July, as military strikes in the Middle East escalate.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, jumped to $100.19 a barrel, up more than $2, and a 2.2% increase. The oil price has risen by a quarter since early last month as hopes vanish for a deal between the US and Iran to end the six-month war that began with air strikes by the US and Israel on Tehran on 28 February.

This week, attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen have set Saudi oil facilities ablaze, in an escalation of the conflict. The attacks could threaten oil shipments via the Red Sea, an alernative route to the strait of Hormuz which has been effectively closed for months.

The UK cannot have a repeat of the travel disruption seen at airports, the foreign secretary has said.

Asked about the flight chaos, Ed Miliband told BBC Breakfast:

First of all, I want to apologise to all of the passengers who have faced disruption.

This is frankly unacceptable. It was a problem at the National Air Traffic Service, but we can’t have this happen again.

The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, is calling in the head of the National Air Traffic Service this morning to get answers to this. Miliband added:

Frankly, we’ve got to have our airports running smoothly and properly, without those problems, and that is what the transport secretary will be asking for from the head of the National Air Traffic Service.

The boss of National Air Traffic Services, Martin Rolfe, has ruled out a cyber attack as a cause of the flight chaos, and apologised to passengers caught up in the flight chaos caused by a system issue on Tuesday, and said he understands their frustration –- but stressed that safety comes first.

Speaking to BBC radio 4’s Today programme, he said:

I’d like to start, as you might expect, by apologising to everyone who’s been impacted by the issue that we had yesterday.

In terms of the recovery, I absolutely understand the frustration. There is nothing we hate more than delaying people, and not allowing them to get to their destination. It disrupts airports and disrupts airlines. And we absolutely take accountability and responsibility for that. That is our job. But our job is also to make sure that people stay safe. We never do this lightly.

He ruled out a cyber attack.

We will be doing a very, very thorough and full investigation. We have at this point ruled out cyber. We don’t believe it was a cyber attack.

Obviously my focus and that of the team has been on both getting our system operating back up normally, which it is now. But there’s obviously a huge tail to the disruption. And we’ll be working on that through the course of today.

And then obviously our attention will turn to exactly what’s happened, this particular incident. What I will say is I don’t believe we’ve ever seen an incident happen more than once. So this will be something different that we’ve never seen in 50 years of operation.

Rolfe insisted that Nats dealt with the issue as quickly as it could:

We had everybody on site. Everybody was in the right place. We had all the engineers in place. We had our various partners from software industries and so on, all on hand. So this was resolved as quickly as it could be, but within the limits of making sure that it all stayed safe.

In the markets, oil prices are rising towards the $100 a barrel level for the first time since July.

Brent crude has jumped 1.5% to $99.36 a barrel, as escalating attacks across the Middle East are fuelling fears over supply disruptions.

Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen launched strikes on several Saudi cities while US forces hit several Iranian oil tankers and Iran targeted a US base in Jordan and attacked ships.

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

The boss of the air traffic control provider Nats has been summoned by the UK transport secretary, as flight chaos carried on into a second day after a system issue, with after more than 1,300 flights cancelled to and from UK airports.

National Air Traffic Services provides air traffic control services to 15 UK airports. Its chief executive Martin Rolfe is due to speak to Heidi Alexander, before she addresses MPs in the Commons for the second reading of the Civil Aviation Bill.

Tens of thousands of passengers have been caught up in the chaos, with more cancellations and delays expected as airlines deal with the knock-on effects at airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted.

According to FlightRadar, 246 flights had been cancelled at Heathrow Airport by 6am on Wednesday, while Gatwick passengers faced 33 cancellations.

Rolfe said he “always accept(s) full responsibility” when asked if he was considering his position after the incident.

He told Sky News:

I am the CEO of a piece of critical infrastructure, so it is my job to take responsibility for that.

What I absolutely take responsibility for is keeping people safe and delivering the best service we possibly can on a day like today.

You will understand my focus is entirely about how we actually resolve this issue, get things back to normal, help our airlines, our airport customers and the travelling public.

The “technical issue” at the air traffic control services provider Nats caused Britain’s third major stoppage in just over three years. Nats said on Tuesday evening:

This has been a very complex recovery and has created difficulties for the whole aviation network, from which it will take time to recover.

The breakdown started at about 1pm on Tuesday and affected departing flights at many of Britain’s biggest airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester and Stansted. By the time Nats said it had fixed its flight processing system almost four hours later, most flights scheduled to depart were yet to take off. The disruption spread to include incoming flights to much of southern England.