National Air Traffic Services (NATS), the UK's leading air traffic management provider, handled its 2,000,000th flight of 2005 yesterday (November 8), 20 days earlier than last year. The flight was a CityJet flight from London City to Dublin.
This milestone marks the fact that UK air traffic is still at higher levels than last year. In October, NATS handled 205,137 flights, a rise of 5.9 per cent over October 2004. However, there are signs that the rate of growth is beginning to slow, with percentage increases moving steadily down from a year-on-year peak increase of 7.5 per cent in June.
The Oceanic Area Control Centre at Prestwick recorded highest growth last month, with an increase on October 2004 of 7.9% to 33,836 flights and had its busiest-ever day on October 4, handling 1,300 flights.
Of the 14 UK airports where NATS provided air traffic control services in October, 13 handled more traffic than they did in October last year. NATS now provides services to 15 UK airports, having won the contract to supply services to Bristol from November 1.
Turkey and Portugal continued to be popular destinations with flights to them up by 37.7% (to 2,885) and 16.4% (to 3,483) respectively over October 2004.
| Oct 2005 | Oct 2004 | % | 2005 to date | 2004 to date | % | ||
| UK FLIGHTS | 205,137 | 193,715 | 5.9% | 1,956,634 | 1,846,058 | 6.0% | |
CENTRES | |||||||
| London Area Control Centre (Swanwick) | 167,179 | 158,471 | 5.5% | 1,578,976 | 1,504,960 | 4.9% | |
| London Terminal Control Centre | 115,787 | 111,831 | 3.5% | 1,113,037 | 1,069,532 | 4.1% | |
| Manchester Area Control Centre | 52,859 | 52,598 | 0.5% | 514,768 | 495,265 | 3.9% | |
| Scottish Area Control Centre | 54,628 | 51,911 | 5.2% | 509,264 | 494,835 | 2.9% | |
| Oceanic Area Control Centre (Shanwick)* | 33,836 | 31,358 | 7.9% | 319,410 | 303,504 | 5.2% | |
MARKET | |||||||
| Transatlantic Arrivals/ Departures | 12,117 | 11,616 | 4.3% | 114,548 | 110,015 | 4.1% | |
| Transatlantic Overflights | 15,172 | 13,937 | 8.9% | 146,737 | 141,219 | 3.9% | |
| Other Arrivals/ Departures | 126,391 | 119,200 | 6.0% | 1,195,049 | 1,126,966 | 6.0% | |
| Other Overflights | 8,195 | 7,447 | 10.0% | 78,626 | 70,414 | 11.7% | |
| Domestic | 42,692 | 41,078 | 3.9% | 417,327 | 393,715 | 6.0% |
14 November 2005
