NATS Altitude

From delivering airspace modernisation and integrating drones through to understanding the impact of AI and the ever pressing need to address aviation’s climate impact, the list of priorities for leaders in air traffic management is a long and complex one. Our industry is in the midst of a period of unprecedented change and that’s in addition to delivering the safe and resilien

Ice, snow, howling winds and temperatures as low as minus 30.C are hardly ideal conditions to be running an international airport, but that’s the reality for the team at Rovaniemi, Finland’s second busiest airport. In beautiful Lapland, sitting on the edge of the Arctic Circle, the near constant need to clear runways and de-ice aircraft should conspire against delivering a smoo

Human Factors is the understanding of ‘the human in the loop’. It’s about how people behave and interact both with technology and each other, and it’s something that has become fundamental to safety across aviation and a host of other industries.But what really is Human Factors? Where did it come from and why is it become so integral? In this month’s Altitude, we’ll be

For more than 25 years, Concorde was the world's only successful supersonic airliner. Flying faster than the rotation of the earth, it could cross the Atlantic in just two and a half hours, with passengers arriving at JFK before they left Heathrow.Now, 20 years after its final ever flight from Heathrow to Filton on 26 November 2003, we look back at the history of one of aviati

Can we expect Artificial Intelligence – heralded by just about everyone as the next great technology leap forward - to have a role in air traffic management? But how can we look beyond the hype and understand what this technology could really do for aviation? When is it right for AI to play a role in a safety critical industry and how could it impact human decision making? Will w

Airspace – our invisible motorways in the sky – is the underpinning of the entire aviation industry. Vital to the safe operation of tens of thousands of flights every single day, it is an infrastructure relied on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to enhance the UK’s global connections. But it is also in need of a radical transformation.In this episode of Altitude, we examine w

The Berlin Airlift was a significant episode in the beginnings of the Cold War, with American, British, and French aircrews flying hundreds of daily cargo flights to deliver essential supplies into a West Berlin blockaded by the Soviet Union.Despite impossible odds, Berlin was sustained by air for 15 months from June 1948, with more than one third of flights being handled from Gato

While the weather may have played its part, Saturday 6 May saw a wonderful flypast over central London to mark the coronation of King Charles III. But what does it really take to organise such a spectacle in what is some of the world’s busiest airspace and why does the weather have such an impact? Did the King get to choose the types of aircraft?!In this episode of Altitude we’

NATS has just reopened recruitment for trainee air traffic controllers, but what does that process look like and what kind of career can successful candidates look forward to?In this episode of Altitude we’re exploring the whole recruitment process, from understanding the requirements and the application process through to assessment and beyond. We’ll also be looking at the tra

As the world mourned the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, plans for the first state funeral of a British monarch in more than 70 years were being put into action. As a mark of respect, it was agreed that aircraft would not overfly the funeral or procession from Central London to Windsor Castle - a period of over nine hours via a route just a few metres from Britain’s busi