NATS

NATS’ four en-route centres, London Area Control at Swanwick, Hampshire; London Terminal Control at West Drayton; Scottish Area and Oceanic Area Control at Prestwick and Manchester Area Control, all reported record levels in the financial year 2005/2006.

For the financial year, the transatlantic market showed steady growth with overflights up 5.5 per cent and arrivals/departures up 3.2 per cent on the financial year 2004/2005.  Higher volumes of traffic between Ireland and continental Europe also contributed to non-transatlantic overflights increasing by 14.8 per cent over the same period.

Figures show that in March, NATS handled 189,174 flights, an increase of 4.2 per cent on the same month last year.

En-route traffic at the 15 airports where NATS provides air traffic services grew by 3.9 per cent in March, with London City, Bristol, Aberdeen, Southampton and Luton showing greatest growth - 23 per cent, 20.9 per cent, 15.1 per cent, 14.4 per cent and 10.2 per cent respectively.

The average delay, per flight, attributable to NATS in the 12 months of the 2005/2006 financial year was 22.2 seconds compared with 20.9 seconds in the previous financial year. This slight movement is attributable to major airspace changes that have taken place during the period designed to increase capacity and reduce delays.