Today marks International Women’s Day and the start of British Science Week, two national celebrations which mean a lot to our business. We’ve been speaking to some of our female employees and advocates for STEM. Meet Dr Sarah Ewer…

The world is a very different place than it was 10 months ago. The demands on us as an ANSP and the support our airport customers need are totally unlike what we were dealing with this time last year. Covid has forced us all to adapt and in doing so we’ve learnt some valuable lessons.

These may be uncertain times, but one thing we know for sure is that flying in the future will look very different from the past. Flying taxis, all-electric aircraft, drone deliveries, even commercial space travel… they are not so far away. That Sixties world of The Jetsons is now knocking at our door! We are already planning to modernise the UK’s airspace and enable access for new types of aircraft, which also means changing the way we manage the airspace.

With airports so badly hit by the impact of the Covid crisis, being able to maximise the value and efficiency of existing assets – especially runways – is going to be of critical importance over the coming years as we begin to see traffic return.

The dramatic fall in traffic we’ve seen across the Atlantic has given us a window of opportunity to do things differently, and to introduce things more quickly than otherwise might have been possible. So, we’re going to disband the Organised Track Structure on days where we don’t believe they are necessary.

Despite the ongoing impact of the pandemic on our industry, there is much to be optimistic about, and there has never been a better time to recalibrate and change our collective mindset to do things differently in the future. Martin Rolfe, CEO, tells more about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the new decade.

Emotional resilience is an important trait in any workplace as it allows individuals to adapt to stressful situations, not least for air traffic controllers who work in a high-pressure environment every day. Dr Emma Egging of the Jon Egging Trust tells us more about what she learnt about developing emotional resilience from speaking to Katie Fisher, a Chartered Occupational Psychologist in the NATS Human Performance team, and Marie Chandler, Director of Quality, Health, Safety and Wellbeing at NATS.

To allay any anxiety that 2020 may have derailed normal operations, we thought you’d appreciate getting a behind the scenes view of the flight planning process has gone so you can reassure anyone expected a delivery on Christmas Eve. 

During a series of trial flights, NATS has been working closely with the Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) to assess how remotely piloted and unmanned aircraft can be used for search and rescue operations by HM Coastguard.

White cloud streaks high up in the sky are one of the ways you can tell a plane has been overhead. And although they can form striking patterns in the sky, these contrails and the cirrus clouds they induce, impact climate change, possibly greater than the effect from CO2 emissions.