whilst I agree completely that lessons need to be learnt from this whole incident. I am not sure I have seen it stated anywhere that Nats as a company has also lost millions of pounds in revenue during the crisis. Nats has been portrayed as somewhat like a police service of the air. Personally if I had been in charge of Nats (god forbid some may say ! ) i would have said that the airspace was open and it was up to the caa , government and the airlines to make the decision to fly or not. I would put forward that Nats overstepped its remit and to listen to junior people being allowed to appear on TV and advise passengers what to do or not do was a total farce. I have not seen the new ceo at any time on tv or senior board members! I think the airlines were well placed to make their own judgements , obviously with government and met office guidance. If , as seems likely it was a case of possible long term engine damage as opposed to aircraft having in flight shutdowns then That is a commercial decision for the operators.