NATS

NATS, the UK’s leading air traffic management provider, has handled a record 7,824 flights in a single day.  The record breaking figure was reached on Friday 16 June, a month which also saw NATS handle 217,331 flights, an increase of 3.5 per cent over the same month last year.

Football supporters travelling to the World Cup in Germanycontributed to strong growth at NATS’ London Area Control Centre at Swanwick, Hampshire which handled 177,835 flights, an increase of 5.9 per cent, while traffic through the London Terminal Control Centre at West Drayton showed growth of 3.8 per cent to 121,882 flights.  The company’s two other en-route centres, Scottish Area and Oceanic Area Control at Prestwick and Manchester Area Control also reported an increase in traffic in June. 

The transatlantic market showed strong growth with overflights up 7.3 per cent, partly due to increased flights over the UKbetween the USAand Italy and Switzerland, and between CanadaandFrance.  Transatlantic arrivals/departures showed an increase of 2.2 per cent while non-transatlantic overflights increased by 15.9 per cent largely due to international flights to and from Ireland.     

Traffic at the 15 airports where NATS provides air traffic services grew by 2.6 per cent in June.  For the half year, four airports have shown growth of more than 10 per cent – Farnborough increased by 15.6 per cent, Bristol by 15.4 per cent, London City by 13.0 per cent and Aberdeenby 11.3 per cent.