NATS

NATS, the UK’s leading air traffic management provider, has seen the number of flights increase in August despite the security alert of 10 August.  The company handled 220,408 flights, an increase of 3.1 per cent over August last year.

London Area Control Centre at Swanwick, Hampshire handled 180,934 flights, setting a new daily record on 25 August of 6,310 flights.  NATS’ other en-route centres also reported increased traffic in August: London Terminal Control at West Drayton handled 121,150 flights, Manchester Area Control 56,597 flights, the Scottish Area Control Centre at Prestwick 56,613 flights and the Oceanic Area Control, also located at Prestwick, 37,444 flights.

Overflights showed the greatest increases over the month, with transatlantic flights up 7.1 per cent, and non-transatlantic up 18.3 per cent with routes between Ireland and Italy, France, Spain and Germany showing the largest increases.  The domestic market showed a slight improvement showing a 0.3 per cent increase in August. 

Traffic at the 15 airports where NATS provides air traffic services grew by 1.2 per cent in August.  However, the picture was mixed as a consequence of the August security alert.  Heathrow was down 1.4 per cent while Farnborough showed an increase of 46.2 per cent due to increased demand for business jets.  Luton, Cardiff and Bristol showed increases of 12.1 per cent, 7.4 per cent and 6.9 per cent respectively.