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.

This month’s episode of Altitude, recorded on the floor of the DroneX conference in London, was about moving from innovation to integration — how drones are changing the way we live in exciting ways along, together with and a desire to see an acceleration away from trials towards more routine operations.

Now the results are in from the recent consultation on NATS OpenAir, we are moving into the next phase of our project aimed at designing a digital data backbone to pave the way to an integrated UK airspace of the future.

With the accelerating growth of the uncrewed and advanced air mobility sectors, the global aviation landscape is poised for significant change. More and more new and diverse airspace users are lining up for access to our skies, supported by a multitude of air traffic service providers.

Development of NATS OpenAir, our proposal for a future integrated airspace management system, continues apace.

Big jets, bustling airports and exciting destinations may be the conventional image of aviation.  But the industry is on the cusp of profound change, with eVTOL aircraft and mass drone operations set to transform our skies in a way we haven’t seen for a hundred years.

Underpinning that new world we need solid foundations, and we’re developing NATS OpenAir to unlock the future of aviation in the UK, revolutionise the way we use airspace and accommodate a new generation of flight.