You may be wondering, what does professional football have to do with air traffic control? It might not be obvious at first, but there are a lot of similarities – not least that both are high performing, high pressure careers which require certain levels of aptitude and mentality.

To celebrate Women of Aviation week and Women’s History month, we caught up with some of our air traffic controllers at Prestwick Centre to find out why encouraging more women into aviation is important to them and what inspired them into their roles…

I’m sure by the time you are reading this article you will be fully aware that today is International Women’s Day. Marked every year on 8 March, it aims to celebrate women’s achievements and increase visibility, while calling out inequality. This year, International Women’s Day also happens to also coincide with Women of Aviation Week, which aims to address the gender imbalance across our industry.

We’re now less than a month away from West Airspace Deployment (West) and we are busy finalising preparations for implementation.

NATS is developing new concepts to improve ATM performance and environmental benefits. Sarah Dow, Advanced Tools & Concepts Lead, tells us more.

We’re giving five people the chance to win a fabulous selection of NATS goodies.

What exactly does fog mean for an air traffic controller and how do we try and manage the impact of foggy days?

Working together with airports and airlines, we put in place some operating restrictions immediately before and during, the silences, both as a mark of our respect and to minimise the risk of noise disturbing the many commemorations being held up and down the country.

In August’s episode of Altitude, we had a fascinating discussion about the future of Urban Air Mobility and eVTOL ‘flying taxis’. We had some very astute questions from the audience, many of which we just didn’t have the time to get to during the live show. So, with that in mind, I wanted to address a few more here.

Lauren tells us all about her role as an Aircraft Control Position Operator and why you should apply to be one too!