A Ryanair flight taxis on the runway at Manchester Airport in Manchester, Britain, 02 June 2026. Jet fuel prices have risen sharply on international markets since the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East, with EasyJet reporting that its kerosene bill rose by 25 million pounds (28.9 million euros) in March. EPA/ADAM VAUGHAN
O'Leary said Ryanair had been told by NATS that the outage was caused by a rogue flight plan, the same problem that caused a major disruption in 2023.
Speaking on BBC Radio on Wednesday, NATS CEO Martin Rolfe said he believed the latest outage had been caused by "something different" from previous incidents.
O'Leary, who has repeatedly called for Rolfe to resign, rejected that explanation.
"NATS have told us it was another rogue flight plan. Now Martin Rolfe is out denying it yesterday," O'Leary said. "I believe he's telling lies to save his own skin."
A NATS investigation into the 2023 outage found it was caused by a "one in 15 million" event in which a flight plan contained two identically named but separate waypoints, forcing both the system and its back-up into a "fail-safe" mode.
Responding to a similar statement from O'Leary on Wednesday, NATS said the latest outage had been caused by a different issue. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment on O'Leary's latest remarks.
Ryanair is suing NATS in London's High Court for more than £7 million ($9.5 million) over the 2023 outage and has called on the operator to reinvest profits in performance improvements and staffing.
The government has given Rolfe a week to investigate the cause of the latest systems failure.
Transport minister Heidi Alexander, who summoned Rolfe for a meeting over the incident, said on Wednesday she believed the outage was avoidable and asked the Civil Aviation Authority to conduct an independent review.
($1 = 0.7377 pounds)
(Reporting by Conor Humphries. Writing by William James. Editing by Sam Tabahriti and Mark Potter)
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