Changing the UK’s airspace is a meticulous process that requires significant planning. It cannot be done quickly, and every step is shaped by requirements from the Department for Transport (DfT) and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). These regulations ensure that changes remain safe and fair, while supporting wider sector goals such as emissions reduction, management of noise impact and capacity growth.  

This year we have made significant strides towards developing NATS OpenAir as the UK-wide digital data infrastructure to enable the safe and efficient integration of crewed and uncrewed aircraft in shared airspace. The next step will see us working with Airways New Zealand.

Scotland’s lower airspace is based on a design built for aircraft and navigation technology that belong to another era. Demand has grown, aircraft have changed and the invisible infrastructure that keeps flights safely moving needs a comprehensive upgrade to keep pace.

Earlier this year, we rolled out the Air Traffic Management Portal, ATM-P for short, a cutting-edge platform designed to enhance collaboration between the Flow Management Team at NATS, who ensure airspace sector capacity is safely balanced with demand.

At this week’s Airlines 2025 event, I joined colleagues from across the sector to discuss capacity and resilience in UK aviation. It highlighted a simple truth: growth alone will not suffice for passengers — resilience must grow alongside capacity. That’s the standard the industry is aiming for, and it’s how the UK will remain competitive.

At NATS, we believe in that same spirit of collaboration. Take Intelligent Approach as an example. 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.

Pairwise is the latest example of how Intelligent Approach is helping airports to make the absolute most out of their available runways, but we’re also working on some other developments on the longer-term horizon. The one I’m most excited about is called Curved Approach.

With global air traffic now matching or exceeding pre-pandemic levels, airports face growing pressure to optimise existing resources. Ahead of the International Airport Summit (IAS) in Berlin this November, International Airport Review (IAR) editor Holly Miles spoke with Chris Miles (Calgary Airport Authority) and Marco Rueckert (Searidge Technologies) about why this challenge is so urgent, the possible solutions, and what’s on the horizon.

As we pay tribute to the courage, commitment and sacrifice of our armed forces community during Armed Forces Week, two members of RAF 78 Squadron, our military colleagues at Swanwick, tell us about their part in the King’s Birthday Flypast. Flight Lieutenant Ross Hammerton and Sergeant Jack Ford were aboard the Voyager aircraft that flew over Buckingham Palace earlier this month.

Project AMEC has directly helped inform the development of our Concepts of Operation (CONOPs), enabling us to understand how we would integrate a large number of eVTOLs – and other new airspace users – into UK airspace.