Digital towers are one of the hottest topics around the industry at the moment, so last week we asked our LinkedIn followers to fire their burning questions at us for us to answer. So here they are.

Much of Britain is bracing itself for snow and ice this week as the ‘Beast from the East’ arrives from Siberia to set up residence over the UK for the next few days.

Ten years ago  flight BA038 crashed landed short of the runway at Heathrow Airport. What would then ensue would be among the most memorable, pressurised and emotionally charged few minutes of air traffic controller Greg Kemp’s life. This is the first time he’s spoken publically about what happened.  

Armistice Day on 11 November provides a powerful focus for national remembrance, but for me it’s a particular day of reflection.

On Thursday 21st September, Andy Shand took part in a discussion with Russell Akehurst from Leidos as part of a live broadcast about NATS Intelligent Approach suite of ATM tools. Here are the answers to some of the questions we received…

When we first introduced Time Based Separation for Heathrow arrivals back in 2015, we knew it was going to make a major difference to the airport’s resilience during strong headwinds, but the results in practice have surpassed our original expectations.

It’s usually the first question that leaves people’s lips whenever we show them the new digital tower facility at Swanwick – is it really safe?

Excitement is building in the aviation industry around digital ‘remote’ towers and the benefits they can offer to airports; from costs savings through to safety and operational enhancements. But I can tell you from hard experience that this wasn’t always the case.

Sunday’s incident at Gatwick, where a drone spotted on the airport’s final approach path caused the runway to be closed for two separate periods, has understandably received a lot of press coverage. The incident caused significant knock-on effects for air traffic control, beyond just stopping arrivals while the runway was closed and caused serious disruption in the sky above southern England.

This past weekend, an enthusiastic team from Searidge Technologies and NATS participated in the first ever international airport {Re} Coding Aviation event in Berlin at hub:raum, a Deutsche Telekom incubator.