Speaking at the 10th AGM and Conference in Prague of the industry’s world-wide trade organisation CANSO, Paul Barron called for all air navigation service providers (ANSP) to face up to the need for change. He said that NATS had already transformed itself, becoming the first major ANSP to be cut loose from the state and its constraints, and was now handling a record 2.3 million flights a year.
Mr Barron said “Air traffic control is an industry which across the world is still a service delivered by a state-owned supplier to privately-owned customers. That is a mismatch which should be evident to all of us.
Paul Barron CEO
“At NATS we have taken the opportunity to shape our own destiny. The UK has proved that change can be achieved and NATS is proving that it works.
“The Single European Sky will only be realised by mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. Efficiency will only be achieved by closing centres, sharing technologies and rationalising corporate functions. This is common language in the industrial world but is still whispered in corridors in the ATC industry.
We need individuals who are prepared to ignore the history, dismantle the barriers, challenge custom and practice, and set radical timescales for change.”
Since it became a Public Private Partnership in 2001, NATS has set out to lead change in the industry. It has reorganised its regulated en-route business to mirror the same management rigour found within its airports and commercial business and has set up ground-breaking partnership agreements with both its military and civil customers.
