Building on the research and the experience of live trials with SATAVIA, we hope to get a better understanding of what contrail formation means for our controllers and operation over the North Atlantic and how we could implement avoidance strategies without increasing fuel consumption, and CO2 emissions.

It’s now more than a year since London City Airport successfully transitioned to a digital tower and began controlling flights from a brand-new remote-control centre, based in Swanwick.

Now, instead of sitting in a physical tower based at London City Airport, a dedicated team of controllers manage the runway through sixteen high-definition cameras and sensors mounted on a mast, capturing a 360-degree view of the City Airport airfield.

Earlier this month, I was invited to present at the Asia Pacific (APAC) Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation CEO Committee Meeting to talk about our recent deployment of Free Route Airspace and the benefits it could deliver across the region.

FlyZero is looking to realise the UK’s ambition to develop a zero-carbon emission aircraft. Nearly a year on the project has reported its findings, which demonstrate the huge potential of green liquid hydrogen to power even long-haul aircraft.

Exactly one year after the RAF’s Air Traffic Management unit at Swanwick was assigned the 78 Squadron number plate, they invited NATS colleagues to a Dining in Night to celebrate the anniversary and the strength of our joint and integrated working relationship. And they celebrated in style onboard HMS Warrior, the former Royal Navy warship […]

Happy Easter from all at NATS! For those of you with little ones to entertain this Easter holiday, we hope they will enjoy this egg-cellent activity pack and learn a little something about air traffic control. We’d love to see your work on the activities in the pack so if you’d like to share it, […]

In celebration of Women of Aviation Week, Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, we’ve been speaking to some of the fantastic women who work at NATS and finding out exactly how and why they ended up working in the wonderful world of aviation. Today we’re hearing from Nicky Patterson, Air Traffic Controller at Manchester […]

The Covid pandemic had a huge impact on aviation. Almost overnight the volume of traffic in the UK dropped hugely, by up to 90%. But this also provided an unexpected opportunity to see how we could use the UK’s airspace more efficiently.

In celebration of Women in Aviation Week, Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, we’ve been speaking to some of the fantastic women who work at NATS and finding out exactly how and why they ended up working in the wonderful world of aviation.

There were nine go-arounds in a row at one point at Heathrow, and 40 in total between 07:00 and 14:00, when usually we might see one a day. Add in similar problems at other airports and you’re suddenly dealing with a very complex, dynamic and challenging environment.