I had the pleasure of paying a behind the scenes visit to Heathrow’s new Terminal 2 on Tuesday. I was there as part of a day organised by the airport to show some invited journalists, bloggers and spotters Heathrow’s inner workings, including NATS’ role in the control tower.

We’ve been able to measure the environmental efficiency of the aircraft in our skies for some time now, but until now we haven’t been able to extend that knowledge to planes operating on the ground at airports.

It’s 5.00 a.m. and you’re dozing on your flight as it crosses over the Scottish coastline. However, the Air Traffic Controller responsible for your aircraft is wide awake and alert. Martin Cox discusses how Human Factors – including fatigue management – promotes safety and performance in our people.

NATS is unlike other Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) in that as well as being responsible for safe and efficient air traffic within our home country, we provide air traffic solutions to customers globally

Huge growth in air travel across Indonesia is driving massive plans to build and relocate a total of 45 airports over the next decade. Business Development Manager, Nick Jackson, will be discussing the challenges and opportunities this brings at the 2nd annual South East Asia Airport Expansion Summit in Jakarta.

One of the key challenges facing aviation today is that the speed of realising new airport developments – whether that’s new runways or terminals – is being outpaced by airline demand. That’s why managing and maximising airport and airspace efficiency has become so important.

I don’t think that there can be any doubt that the biggest challenge affecting the aviation industry in the Middle East is congestion.

NATS had been working with Heathrow, BA and community group HACAN on a noise respite trial for people living under the airport flight paths. Today, the results have been published and they make for interesting reading.

An airport is an airport, right? Wrong! Every airport has its own idiosyncrasies, foibles and operational challenges. As such, we’ve compiled a top list of what we hope are interesting titbits and trivia on the airports that NATS operates from in the UK and Gibraltar.

The air traffic control tower is an iconic symbol of any airport, but the inner workings are veiled in secrecy because it’s a side of airport life that so few people ever see. That’s why we’ve created this infographic to explain what’s going on behind the scenes.