NATS Holdings
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Parent Civil Aviation Authority (49%)[2] | | |
Subsidiaries | NATS En-Route PLC NATS Services Ltd | |
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Website | www |
NATS Holdings, formerly National Air Traffic Services and commonly referred to as NATS, provides en-route air traffic control services to flights within the UK flight information regions and the Shanwick Oceanic Control Area.[3] It also provides air traffic control services to 14 UK airports.
The company's en-route business is regulated and operated under licence from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).[4]
History
The organisation was originally set up as the National Air Traffic Control Services (NATCS) in 1962, bringing together responsibility for the UK's existing military and civil air traffic control services.[citation needed]
The organisation became National Air Traffic Services (NATS) when the responsibility for sponsoring the civil air traffic service component was transferred to the newly formed Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in 1972. Before this it had no legal existence – all contracts were with the CAA or MoD.[citation needed]
Until its establishment as a separate company, the leadership of NATS (the "Controller") alternated between civil and military, the latter normally a serving
In 1992 it was recognised by the Government that as a service provider, NATS should be operated at some distance from its regulator, the CAA. Although debated, it was decided that NATS should not be
In 1998, a
As a public-private partnership the UK government holds 49% and a golden share, with 42% held by the Airline Group, 5% by NATS staff, and 4% by UK airport operator LHR Airports Ltd.[8][2]
Structure
The workforce of NATS includes
NATS is split into two main service provision companies: NATS En-Route PLC (NERL) and NATS Services Ltd (NSL).
- NERL is the sole provider of civilian en-route air traffic control over the UK and is regulated by the CAA which, for example, determines the charges NERL can make. NERL is funded by Eurocontrol route charges for the provision of air traffic services.
- NSL competes for contracts to provide air traffic control at airports in the UK and overseas, as well as providing related services including engineering, consultancy, information services, and training.
Operations
In 2019 NATS handled 2.54m flights.[9]
En-route control centres
There are two control locations in the UK operated by NERL:
- London Area Control Centre and London Terminal Control Centre at Swanwick in Hampshire control both upper level en-route traffic across England and Wales up to the Scottish border and low-level traffic around London and South East England, including aircraft making approaches to the main London airports.
- The Prestwick Centre, Ayrshire, is home to the Scottish Area Control Centre (including, since January 2010, the former Manchester Area Control Centre), which controls traffic over Scotland, Northern Ireland, and up to FL285 over the northern half of England, and the Prestwick Oceanic Area Control Centre which provides a procedural control service for traffic crossing the North Atlantic via the Shanwick Oceanic Control Area.
Various radar stations are operated around the UK, one such being that on Great Dun Fell in Cumbria.
Airport services
The airports service line provides air traffic services at 16 UK airports:[10]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b9/Heathrow_Traffic_Control_Tower_-_geograph.org.uk_-_144749.jpg/140px-Heathrow_Traffic_Control_Tower_-_geograph.org.uk_-_144749.jpg)
- Heathrow Airport
- Edinburgh Airport
- Southampton Airport
- Gatwick Airport
- Aberdeen Airport
- London City Airport
- Luton Airport
- London Stansted Airport
- Cardiff Airport
- Bristol Airport
- Newcastle International Airport
- Farnborough Airport
- Manchester Airport
- Belfast International Airport
- George Best Belfast City Airport
- Glasgow Airport
Glasgow Airport ATC Tower
NATS has also won contracts to provide air traffic control engineering services at certain airports including:
- London Biggin Hill Airport
- London Oxford Airport
- Highlands and Islands Airports
NATS also provides services to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), via Qinetiq, for air traffic and range air control services at a number of UK ranges, including:
- Aberporth
- Hebrides (Deep Sea Range)
- Larkhill
- West Freugh
NATS also provides services to the MoD's Military Aviation Authority.
Aberdeen NSL provides air traffic services on behalf of NERL to offshore helicopters operating primarily from Aberdeen,
Defence
NATS helps the military around the world share airspace with civil aviation for commercial, political and environmental reasons. Services NATS provides include:
- Aeronauticaldata
- Defence consulting
- En route
- Military Terminal ATC provision
- Surveillance
Aquila
Aquila is a joint venture between NATS and Thales responsible for delivering the UK's Marshall program to transform terminal air traffic management at military airfields. Marshall seeks to ensure a safe, efficient and sustainable air traffic management (ATM) service for the UK armed forces. It will modernise ATM at over 100 MoD locations, in the UK and overseas, including more than 60 airfields and ranges.
Aquila is tasked to deliver a system-wide modernisation and rationalisation of the current fragmented system, and establish a flexible ATM service which is future-proofed to meet potential changes in the regulatory and technological landscape.
Engineering
Engineering services NATS provides include:
- Control centre systems
- Airport technology
Consultancy
- Airspace design
- Capacity planning
- Environmental reporting
- Occupational Health
- Runway capacity studies
- Strategy and business planning
- Safety management and human factors
- Technology and projects
Information services
Services provided by NATS include:
- Aeronautical charting
- Aeronautical Information Management (AIM)
- Procedure design
- Surveillance data
- Target Start Approval Time (TSAT)
- Wind farmsplanning and consultancy
Former Operations
En-route control centres
The London Air Traffic Control Centre at RAF West Drayton opened in 1966 and provided ATC services until it closed in 2007, with the move to Swanwick.
Scottish air traffic control has been carried out from Atlantic House in Prestwick since 1978. This situation changed with the opening of the Prestwick Centre in 2010, to which all operational services were transferred from the old Atlantic House along with the functions carried out at the Manchester Area Control Centre which subsequently closed.
Airport services
NATS, through its airports service line, established an alliance with Spanish partner
Associations and alliances with other organisations
NATS is a full member of the
NATS is a founding member of two of Europe's leading ANSP Alliances – the A6 Alliance and the Borealis Alliance.[14][15]
The A6 is an alliance of some of the main European Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs). Its aim is to help drive the modernisation of the European ATM network within the SESAR programme for the benefit of customers. The A6 members are full members of the SESAR Joint Undertaking and are part of the SESAR Deployment Alliance, which was recently appointed SESAR Deployment Manager by the European Commission.
The Borealis Alliance is an alliance of Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs). The Alliance includes the ANSPs of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Norway, Sweden and the UK. The Borealis Alliance is currently working on a major programme to deliver free route airspace across the whole of Northern Europe by 2020.
Since the 1940s, the Irish and UK air traffic control service providers have worked effectively together. This was further strengthened in July 2008 when the UK and Ireland launched the first operational
NATS is a full member of the
NATS is a shareholder in European Satellite Services Provider (ESSP), a company set up to operate the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS).[19]
NATS is primarily known for the air traffic services it provides in the UK but also works internationally providing air traffic and consultancy services in over 30 countries,[
Notable incidents
From 15 to 20 April 2010, under internationally agreed guidelines that require a zero tolerance approach to ash, NATS placed a series of restrictions on aircraft operating in UK controlled airspace owing to the potential dangers caused by a volcanic ash cloud from the eruption of Icelandic volcano
On 12 December 2014, from 15:30 until 16:30, traffic flow throughout the London airspace was restricted due to a computer system failure at NATS. At 15:30 an announcement was made by Eurocontrol that "There has been a failure of the flight data computer server at London ACC [area control centre]." At 16:30 the airspace was reopened, however it remained restricted with some landing flights being turned away.[21] NATS reported that the failure was due to a single faulty line of software source code.[22]
On 28 August 2023 NATS suffered a major technical incident that caused severe delays.[2] It occurred on the busiest day of the year.[23] The incident lasted approximately 3 hours, however this caused knock-on delays. 790 flights departing UK airports and 785 flights arriving into UK airports were cancelled, representing about 27% of all flights. The following day at least 281 flights were cancelled.[24]
See also
References
- ^ "NATS Holdings Limited – Results for the year ended 31 March 2021". 12 July 2021.
- ^ a b c "UK air traffic control failure: What caused it, and who will have to pay? | Air transport | the Guardian".
- ^ "IVAO Gander / Shanwick Oceanic". IVAO Gander.
- ^ "About us". NATS. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
- ^ "NATS: Our Story", NATS Communications, 2006
- ^ "History". NATS. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
- ^ "Refinancing the Public Private Partnership for National Air Traffic Services - National Audit Office (NAO) report". National Audit Office (NAO). 7 January 2004.
- ^ "A Public Private Partnership". NATS – Our Ownership. Archived from the original on 21 April 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
- ^ "Annual Report and Accounts" (PDF). NATS. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
- ^ "NATS Corp Presentation 1119 V6". Retrieved 26 June 2022.
- ^ "ferroNATS". ferronats.
- ^ "Adios FerroNATS, thanks for the memories". NATS. 1 February 2023. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
- ^ "SESAR Deployment Manager". SESAR Deployment Manager, Funded by the European Union. 22 April 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- ^ "A6 Alliance". A6 Alliance. 22 April 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- ^ "Borealis Alliance". Borealis Alliance, Borealis is a registered trademark. 22 April 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
- ^ "UK Ireland FAB". UK Ireland FAB. 14 July 2013. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
- ^ "FAQs". NATS. 14 July 2009. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
- ^ "NATS and IAA publish three-year plan for Functional Airspace Block (FAB)". Atc-network.com. 18 May 2009. Archived from the original on 19 July 2012. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
- ^ "Who we are. The ESSP in brief | ESSP-SAS".
- ^ BBC News – Iceland volcano: UK flights grounded for second day 16 April 2010
- ^ "Flights disrupted after computer failure at UK control centre". BBC. 12 December 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
- ^ "Air chaos: Vince Cable accuses Nats of poor investment". BBC. 14 December 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
- ^ "Air traffic control latest: Britons stuck on tarmac abroad - amid warning disruption could last into the week". Sky News. Retrieved 28 August 2023.
- ^ "Air traffic control live updates: Hundreds of UK flights cancelled as disruption 'set to last days'". BBC News. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
External links
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