30 episodes

Altitude is a monthly live-streamed podcast from NATS - the UK's leading air traffic control company. Here people from across the aviation industry join our own team of experts to offer insights on a wide range of topics. Find out more about the world of air traffic control at NATS.aero. 

NATS Altitude NATS - UK air traffic control

    • Business

Altitude is a monthly live-streamed podcast from NATS - the UK's leading air traffic control company. Here people from across the aviation industry join our own team of experts to offer insights on a wide range of topics. Find out more about the world of air traffic control at NATS.aero. 

    30 - Shaping our future skies

    30 - Shaping our future skies

    From delivering airspace modernisation and integrating drones through to understanding the impact of AI and the ever pressing need to address aviation’s climate impact, the list of priorities for leaders in air traffic management is a long and complex one. 

    Our industry is in the midst of a period of unprecedented change and that’s in addition to delivering the safe and resilient service people rightly expect every day. 

    In this month’s Altitude, we invite Martin Rolfe, CEO of NATS, and Simon Hocquard, CANSO’s Director General, to reflect on the state of the industry, its biggest challenges and why air traffic management remains central to aviation’s on-going success.
    You can also watch an on demand version of the livestream on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@NatsAero

    • 50 min
    29 - Winter Operations: Finnish Snow-how

    29 - Winter Operations: Finnish Snow-how

    Ice, snow, howling winds and temperatures as low as minus 30.C are hardly ideal conditions to be running an international airport, but that’s the reality for the team at Rovaniemi, Finland’s second busiest airport. 

    In beautiful Lapland, sitting on the edge of the Arctic Circle, the near constant need to clear runways and de-ice aircraft should conspire against delivering a smooth operation, but the weather hasn’t closed Rovaniemi in over seven years. 

    Attracting record passenger numbers in 2023 as one of Finland’s most important international gateways - and of course the official airport of Santa Claus – keeping Rovaniemi running safely and smoothly is vital.

    So, what’s the secret? What snow-how keeps the airport open when so many others would be forced to close? And how do the teams ensure a warm welcome to the thousands of visitors that flock to Lapland to meet Santa and glimpse the Northern Lights every year? 

    In this month’s Altitude we’re joined by the teams from whose job it is to battle the elements.
    You can also watch an on demand version of the livestream on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@NatsAero

    • 45 min
    28 - The Human Factor

    28 - The Human Factor

    Human Factors is the understanding of ‘the human in the loop’. It’s about how people behave and interact both with technology and each other, and it’s something that has become fundamental to safety across aviation and a host of other industries.

    But what really is Human Factors? Where did it come from and why is it become so integral? In this month’s Altitude, we’ll be digging into the history, the practical applications and the challenges posed by the rise of things like AI and automation. 

    In this episode, Barry Kirby, President of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors and NATS’ own Human Factors Director Nuno Cebola have a fascinating and thought-provoking discussion.
    You can also watch an on demand version of the livestream on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@NatsAero

    • 57 min
    27 - Concorde: 20 years on

    27 - Concorde: 20 years on

    For more than 25 years, Concorde was the world's only successful supersonic airliner. Flying faster than the rotation of the earth, it could cross the Atlantic in just two and a half hours, with passengers arriving at JFK before they left Heathrow.

    Now, 20 years after its final ever flight from Heathrow to Filton on 26 November 2003, we look back at the history of one of aviation’s great engineering and technical marvels. 

    There is no one better to help us do that than our very special guest, Captain Mike Bannister. As Chief Concorde Pilot for British Airways, Mike amassed 9,200 Concorde flight hours – around 6,900 at supersonic speeds – more than anyone else. We’ll asked him what it was it like to fly so fast you could watch the sun rise in the West, how it felt to see the curvature of the earth from very edge of space and his memories of being behind the controls for those final flights. 

    We’re also joined by air traffic controller Brian Ringrose, who gave Concorde its final ever departure clearance. How did Concorde’s incredible performance impact air traffic control? What special demands did it place on the controllers, and did it enrapture them as much as it did the rest of the world?
    You can also watch an on demand version of the livestream on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@NatsAero

    • 49 min
    26 - Artificial Intelligence and Aviation

    26 - Artificial Intelligence and Aviation

    Can we expect Artificial Intelligence – heralded by just about everyone as the next great technology leap forward - to have a role in air traffic management? 

    But how can we look beyond the hype and understand what this technology could really do for aviation? When is it right for AI to play a role in a safety critical industry and how could it impact human decision making? Will we ever really see AI managing live air traffic in our skies and if so, what are the unseen risks? 

    In this month’s Altitude we’re joined by a panel to help us navigate this technological and moral maze. 

    We discuss Project Bluebird, with its aim of building a digital twin of UK airspace. We also investigate how AI and automation are already starting to transform airport traffic management, and we unpick where AI could be used to improve performance and safety.
    You can also watch an on demand version of the livestream on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@NatsAero

    • 51 min
    25 - Airspace Modernisation: Transforming the Skies

    25 - Airspace Modernisation: Transforming the Skies

    Airspace – our invisible motorways in the sky – is the underpinning of the entire aviation industry. Vital to the safe operation of tens of thousands of flights every single day, it is an infrastructure relied on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to enhance the UK’s global connections. But it is also in need of a radical transformation.

    In this episode of Altitude, we examine why airspace modernisation is such an important part of the industry’s response to the climate crisis and vital to the decarbonisation of the aviation sector. We look at NATS’ experience in delivering the UK’s largest airspace changes, the tools and technologies deployed, the challenges of transforming some of the world’s busiest airspace with views from across the industry and how close collaboration is the key to progress.
    You can also watch an on demand version of the livestream on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@NatsAero

    • 48 min

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