Engineers can imagine too! As we begin to deploy more SESAR air traffic management technologies and concepts, we are also imagining how we could further improve our services – now and in the future.

The new European Commission has indicated that they plan to review the effectiveness of existing legislation before introducing new legislation and I think that’s a good move. They could start by looking at the Single European Sky (SES) initiative.

What is SPACE? Put simply, it’s our innovation capability, designed to solve the difficult problems of today and enable us to see further into the future, to drive the aviation industry forward and provide solutions for tomorrow’s needs.

Regeneration should not be a one off process, after all The Doctor has done it more than eleven times and Salamanders are capable of regenerating multiple limbs. We recognise this within NATS and our strategies look as far into the future as possible so that we implement a capability for this future today.

Ongoing global events and most recently, activity at the Bardarbunga volcano in Iceland, have brought the word ‘NOTAM’, or ‘Notice to Airmen’ into the public domain as it is discussed on news broadcasts and online. But what is a NOTAM, who is in charge of them and how do they affect where aircraft fly?

Conditional routes typically go through areas of airspace which are used by the military for their operations. When the military are not using these areas of airspace, they are available (together with the CDRs that go through them) for non-military aircraft. By their nature, CDRs are not available all of the time.

This week we have launched a consultation on two particular departure routes at Stansted Airport. This is a part of Phase One of the London Airspace Management Programme, which you may recall we talked about last autumn when we consulted on changes to airspace serving London Gatwick and London City airports.

Top airport and industry experts convened in Seoul last week for the ACI World Annual General Assembly at a time when sharing lessons learned through experience and working in co-operation is seen as the way forward.

SESAR – the Single European Sky ATM Research programme – has been a major focus for Europe’s aviation industry over the last 10 years. Whilst technology is only one part of the change required if we’re going to achieve the objectives of the European Commission’s Single European Sky project, it’s a vitally important one.

Cross-border collaboration and multi-agency working is now a necessity in the world of Air Traffic Management as we work towards delivering a Single European Sky (SES). NATS, working closely with our UK-Ireland Functional Airspace Block (FAB) partners, has just project managed the delivery of a landmark cross-border trial in support of one of the next generation of SES concepts.