NATS Holdings — BrandWiki

NATS Holdings

Overview

NATS Holdings Limited

industry
type	Public-private partnership
genre	Information Services
predecessor	NATCS
foundation	1962
location	Whiteley, England, United Kingdom
locations	London Area Control Centre and London Terminal Control Centre at Swanwick, Area Control at Prestwick, and air traffic control services at UK airports, as well as offices in Dubai and Singapore
area served	UK and Gibraltar airspace
key people	Martin Rolfe (chief executive officer)

NATS Holdings, formally National Air Traffic Services (NATS), provides en-route air traffic control services to flights within the UK flight information regions and the Shanwick Oceanic Control Area.[2] 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).[3]

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.

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.

Until its establishment as a separate company, the leadership of NATS (the "Controller") alternated between civil and military, the latter normally a serving air marshal. The first controller was Sir Laurence Sinclair, exceptionally a retired

Operations

In 2019 NATS handled 2.54m flights.[9]

En-route control centres

There are two control locations in the UK operated by NERL:

Various radar stations are operated around the UK, one such being that on Great Dun Fell in Cumbria.

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.

Airport services

The airports service line provides air traffic services at 15 UK airports:[10]

NATS has also won contracts to provide air traffic control engineering services at certain airports including:

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:

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, Shetland (Sumburgh), Humberside Airport, Norwich Airport and North Denes.

Heathrow Airport
Southampton Airport
Gatwick Airport
Aberdeen Airport

Defence

NATS helps the military around the world share airspace with civil aviation for commercial, political and environmental reasons. Services NATS provides include:

Aeronautical data
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.

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 farms planning 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 Ferrovial in 2011, forming FerroNATS,[11] which provides air traffic control (ATC) services at nine airports across Spain: Alicante, Valencia, Ibiza, Sabadell, Sevilla, Jerez, Melilla, Madrid Cuatro Vientos, Vigo and A Coruña airports in Spain. FerroNATS was awarded the contract to provide services at these airports through a competitive tender process run by the Spanish aviation authority, AENA.

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 Ferrovial in 2011, forming FerroNATS,[11] which provides air traffic control (ATC) services at nine airports across Spain: Alicante, Valencia, Ibiza, Sabadell, Sevilla, Jerez, Melilla, Madrid Cuatro Vientos, Vigo and A Coruña airports in Spain. FerroNATS was awarded the contract to provide services at these airports through a competitive tender process run by the Spanish aviation authority, AENA. All nine operational handovers were completed between November 2012 and January 2014. In February 2023 FerroNATS was sold to Portobello Capital and renamed Skyway.[12]

Associations and alliances with other organisations

NATS is a full member of the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) joint undertaking, and a member of the SESAR Deployment Alliance, a cross-industry partnership made up of four airline groups, operators of 25 airports and 11 air traffic control providers. The SESAR Deployment Alliance was appointed to the role of SESAR Deployment Manager by the European Commission in December 2014 and will help to co-ordinate and synchronise the modernisation of Europe's air traffic management system.[13]

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 Functional Airspace Block, often referred to in the industry as FAB,[16] under the European Commission's Single European Sky initiative.[17][18]

NATS is a full member of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), an international association of companies that provide air traffic control services.

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, working with many different organisations in Europe and beyond, including Singapore, the United States and Qatar.