From Lennon and McCartney to Intelligent Approach: Why collaboration is all you need

Whether it’s The Beatles writing songs that shaped a generation, the Wright brothers taking flight, or Marie and Pierre Curie unravelling the mysteries of radioactivity, these pioneers remind us that working together has often been at the heart of progress.

At NATS, we believe in that same spirit of collaboration. It’s something that you see right across the aviation industry – from airport to airline to air traffic control, we simply couldn’t do it alone.

Take Intelligent Approach as an example — the only approach spacing tool that provides true time-based separation. It owes its origins to collaboration: NATS, Leidos, Heathrow, Think, Eurocontrol, SESAR. Each partner brought something unique to the table, and together, we have created something transformative.

This spirit of collaboration is shared with our customers. As an ANSP, our operational needs mirror their own. We want and need the same things: to improve operational resilience, deliver better on-time performance, reduce CO2 emissions, and increase revenue.

That’s why collaboration is in the fabric of how we work.

Earlier this month, the annual Intelligent Approach Customer Summit took place in London. Alongside Leidos, we welcomed our partners and customers – including LVNL, NAV CANADA, and SANS – for two days of workshops and discussions.

Just as customer ambitions were at the heart of its inception – replacing fixed distances with time as the basis for aircraft separation – we continue to evolve and improve the tool with those who use it. Its features, capabilities and modules are shaped by the insights, challenges, and expertise of a growing community of ANSPs and airports.

That same spirit of collaboration is vital when it comes to tackling the biggest challenges we face as an industry such as climate change, the digitalisation of aviation and integration of drones and new aircraft types. From GAIN to Bluebird and the Future Flight Challenge, we continue our collaboration with partners around the world to advance aviation and keep the skies safe.

These collaborations are an important part of the NATS story, because when we collaborate, we move the needle.

To find out more about Intelligent Approach, the world’s only true time-based separation approach spacing tool, visit Intelligent Approach – Controller tools to optimise arrivals management