NATS provides air traffic services at most of the UK’s major airports, including all seven owned by BAA. These range from the world's busiest for international flights, Heathrow, and Gatwick, the world's busiest single-runway airport, to the city airports of Glasgow and Southampton. NATS also manages air traffic at airports in Manchester, Birmingham, London City, Luton and Farnborough.
In each case, NATS operates under contract to the airport operator, won on a competitive basis against other service providers.
- Aberdeen
- Belfast International
- Birmingham
- Bristol
- Cardiff
- Edinburgh
- Farnborough
- Gibraltar
- Glasgow
- London Gatwick
- London Heathrow
- London Stansted
- London City
- London Luton
- Manchester
- Southampton
NATS also provides an approach radar service for:
- Sumburgh Airport in the Shetland Islands
- Biggin Hill, Kent
- RAF St Athan near Cardiff
In addition, the company provides air control services to the Defence Evaluation Research Agency at the Larkhill and Aberporth ranges.
Safety and Capacity
Safe operation of aircraft on the runway and in nearby airspace is the dominant constraint on runway utilisation. Traffic mix, runway occupancy time for take-off and landing, separation minima, wake vortex, weather conditions, runway configuration, airport layout and air traffic control procedures all affect the maximum number of movements that each airport can safely achieve.
Runway capacity is calculated at particularly busy airports like Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Manchester and Birmingham which operate at or near their maximum throughput for sustained periods. NATS uses simulation modelling techniques to determine capacity profiles that reflect the daily traffic patterns. This is expressed in hourly movement rates. Actual operations are monitored to record exactly what is happening. That data is used in a fast-time computer simulation to calculate the level of delays that would occur for a given schedule. Following an assessment by air traffic control managers of the operational implications, safe capacity profiles are discussed with scheduling committees and airport operators, who take decisions on the optimum profile.