NATS

NATS, the UK’s leading air traffic management provider, has handled its 1,000,000^th flight of 2006, six days earlier than last year.  The flight on 9 June was a bmibaby flight from Cork toBirmingham.

This milestone reflects the continued growth in UKflights in the first five months of the year.  In May, NATS handled 213,288 flights, an increase of 3.9 per cent over the same month last year.

NATS’ London Terminal Control at West Drayton handled a record 4,230 flights on Wednesday 17 May whilst the London Area Control Centre at Swanwick, Hampshire, handled a record 40,100 flights in the week ending 21 May.  The company’s two other en-route centres, Scottish Area and Oceanic Area Control at Prestwickand Manchester Area Control also reported an increase in traffic in May.

Traffic at the 15 airports where NATS provides air traffic services grew by 3.4 per cent in May. Particularly strong growth was recorded by Farnborough, which handled 1,855 flights, 24.1 per cent up on a year ago, andLondon City, which handled 6,974, an increase of 16.8 per cent.  Flights atBristol increased by 12.7 per cent to 6,303, at Stansted by 12.2 per cent to 18,718 and at Aberdeen by 12.1 per cent to 5,694.  

The transatlantic market showed steady growth with overflights up 4.5 per cent and arrivals/departures up 4 per cent on May 2005.  Higher volumes of traffic between Irelandand continental Europe also contributed to non-transatlantic overflights increasing by 17.3 per cent over the same period.