Yesterday I joined colleagues at the World ATM Congress for a discussion about some of the key challenges facing those of us in the world of air traffic management in the years to come.

A record attendance was recorded at the 26th Bi-Annual North American/European Air Traffic Flow Management Task Force (NAMEUR) Meeting in Dublin, Ireland. Work has already started on the next meeting, NAMEUR/27 which is planned for late April 2016 in Miami, USA and which will be hosted by IATA.

A few weeks ago NATS launched a new report from Oxford Economics, on the economic benefits of improvements to Middle East air traffic control. People from all over the world took part in a live debate, We received a number of questions, some of which I’ve addressed in my latest blog.

Visitors are invited to a number of technical demonstrations hosted by our experts on the following topics: Cross Border Arrival Management (XMAN), Time Based Separation (TBS), Airport Capacity Management (ACM) and Flight Optimisation System (FloSys).

The NAMEUR Task Force arrives in Dublin, Ireland for the event which runs from 29th September to 1st October 2015, with NATS once again co-chairing alongside United Airlines.

From sports such as Formula 1 using real-time data to analyse performance and devise strategy through to retail and loyalty cards using big data sets to provide better experiences and offers for their customers, getting your hands on good data and using it effectively is at the heart of many of today’s industries. Real-time big data is on its way to ATM and the sooner we can make it happen, the better.

A good proportion of us will take to the skies over the next few months to reach our holiday destinations and will expect the flight to and from your paradise to be without drama.

In the world of air traffic control, we have that same desire and work particularly hard to realise that expectation, even with growing air traffic levels and increased demand.

GPS is widely used in the transport industry, most obviously by the sat-navs in our cars, but largely due to current levels of signal accuracy and integrity being too low, we’re yet to maximise its use in the aviation industry. This is starting to change, however, with the ongoing development of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS).

Every year the International Air Transport Association (IATA) brings its members together for an Operations Conference. This year the conference was in Los Angeles and focused on the challenge and opportunity from introducing new technology to enhance safety, efficiency and capacity.

The average passenger on board any one of the 5000 plus flights through UK airspace every day is likely to be aware of Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs) sat in the control tower at their airport, ensuring a safe and efficient arrival or departure.

However, many people simply aren’t aware of the controllers who make sure that aircraft get to their destination through the airspace in-between airports – either just in the UK or connecting a flight between different countries airspace – that’s the job of the area controller.