Ian Hall
Ian Hall, Director, enjoys recounting how, in 1993 he was able to tell our customers, the airlines, that average delays had been halved from 22 minutes per flight to 11 minutes per flight – and they were delighted.
Today, the average delay per flight is 4.3 seconds.
NATS is extremely proud of its performance in reducing delays whilst safely handling ever increasing volumes of traffic in some of the most complex airspace in the world.
Annual UK air traffic volumes doubled from 1m in 1985 to 2m in 2000, and today stand at just under 2.4m.
Operational information
London Area Control, Swanwick, controls the En route airspace over England and Wales, above 24,500 feet. The most flights the centre has ever handled in a day is 6,697 flights and managed 1,803,744 flights in 2009.
London Terminal Control, Swanwick, controls the airspace over southern England below 24,500 feet. The most flights the centre has ever handled in a day is 4,547 flights and managed 1,259,241 flights in 2009.
Manchester Area Control, based at Prestwick Centre in Ayrshire since January 23, 2009, controls the airspace over the Midlands and north-west England below 28,500 feet. The most flights the centre has ever handled in a day is 2,130 flights and managed 489,429 flights in 2009.
Scottish Area Control, also at Prestwick, controls the airspace over Scotland and its coasts, up to 50,000 feet. The most flights the centre has ever handled in a day is 2,251 flights and managed 558,169 flights in 2009.
Oceanic Area Control Centre, Prestwick controls the airspace over the eastern half of the North Atlantic (to 55 Degrees West), up to 50,000 feet. The most flights the centre has ever handled in a day is 1,415 flights and managed 389,739 flights in 2009.
Overall, the most flights that NATS has ever handled in UK controlled airspace in a day is 8,190. NATS managed 2,200,326 flights in 2009.
The Prestwick Centre manages ScACC and MACC. It managed 921,450 flights in 2009
The Swanwick Centre manages LAC and LTC. It managed 1,898,318 flights in 2009.
Airports
Heathrow Airport is the world’s most intensively used international airport. It handled 466,397 flights in 2009. The record number of movements over one day is 1383.
Gatwick Airport is the world’s busiest single-runway airport. It handled 251,794 flights in 2009. The record number of movements over one day is 895.
Stansted Airport handled 167,777 flights in 2009. The record number of movements over one day is 732.
Luton Airport handled 99,300 flights in 2009. The record number of movements over one day is 506.
London City Airport handled 75,014 flights in 2009. The record number of movements over one day is 383.
Manchester Airport handled 172,277 flights in 2009. The record number of movements over one day is 898.
Birmingham Airport handled 101,682 flights in 2009. The record number of movements over one day is 469.
Edinburgh Airport handled 115,968 flights in 2009. The record number of movements over one day is 645.
Glasgow Airport handled 85,287 flights in 2009. The record number of movements over one day is 471.
Aberdeen Airport is one of the world’s busiest airports for rotary-wing operations, handling traffic for the offshore oil and gas industry. It handled 109,754 flights in 2009. The record number of movements over one day is 560.
Belfast (International) Airport handled 68,292 flights in 2009. The record number of movements over one day is 516.
Cardiff Airport handled 27,264 flights in 2009. The record number of movements over one day is 488.
Southampton Airport handled 46,000 flights in 2009. The record number of movements over one month is 6,252.
Bristol (International) Airport handled 70,733 flights in 2009. The record number of movements over one day is 316
Farnborough Airport handled 24,441 flights in 2009. The record number of movements over one month is 4,247.
Gibraltar Airport handled 4,936 flights in 2009. The record number of movements over one month is 636.
Delays
In 2009/10 99.5 per cent of flights handled received no NATS-attributable delay. The flight delay attributable to NATS during this financial year averaged 4.3 seconds. In 2002, the average delay attributable to NATS was 2½ minutes.
Safety
Internationally agreed measure of air traffic safety is the ‘airprox’, being any incident in which the distance between two aircraft was such that their safety was, or might have been, compromised.
The number of airproxes between commercial aircraft in UK airspace has fallen to a fifth compared to figures at the end of the last decade, despite increasing traffic. In 2008/09, there were no risk-bearing airproxes involving commercial flights in UK airspace.