NATS wins Transformation Project of the Year Award at APM Awards

We are proud to announce that NATS has scooped the Transformation Project of the Year Award at this year’s Association for Project Management (APM) Awards. This recognition comes as a result of the exceptional project delivery of West Airspace Deployment (West), one of the largest and most technically challenging airspace changes ever undertaken.

West was successfully implemented above 7,000ft over southwest England and Wales, on 23 March 2023. Comprising two concurrent airspace changes – Systemisation and Free Route Airspace – the project forms an important part of the industry’s roadmap to deliver a more sustainable future for air travel and supports the UK government’s Airspace Modernisation Strategy.

The West project team won the award at the Park Plaza, Westminster on 20 Nov 2023

Our submission was subject to a rigorous process which looked at various areas of how the project was managed, including the project context, the story around the project lifecycle, the issues that arose and how the project was able to successfully deliver two months earlier than planned on budget, whilst exceeding benefit targets set at the outset.

The Transformation Project of the Year award is awarded to the team whose project demonstrates the most effective use of project management and the greatest benefits and outcomes to end users in projects providing transformational change, either culturally or organisationally.

With over 90,000 hours of effort from the project since its inception, West was delivered against a challenging backdrop for the aviation industry. This accolade is testament to the agile and collaborative approach taken to successfully transform 54,000 square nautical miles of UK airspace.