Air traffic control, airline and military operation staff and pilots from both sides of the North Atlantic attended the recent 27th NAMEUR Meeting, which I co-chaired along with Tobin Miller from American Airlines. NAMEUR focuses on how flights both enter and leave the North Atlantic airspace.

Airspace is our invisible infrastructure: we might not be able to see it, but it is as important as our roads, our railways and our runways.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) are embedded within the skills of people at NATS and keep our operation ticking.

Humans are at the heart of air traffic management. However, the tools and technologies we put in place to support them can make a big difference to the job they’re able to do.

Yesterday I joined colleagues at the World ATM Congress for a discussion about some of the key challenges facing those of us in the world of air traffic management in the years to come.

At Prestwick the FISOs record a fair amount of information on our handwritten FIR strips. We try to note down on the flight strip all the relevant information on the first call with an aircraft.

The FPL ensures that any pilot, anywhere in the world, with whatever payload, can be sure that air traffic controllers are looking out for them and managing the orderly flow of air traffic.

Any company’s most important asset is its people, and NATS is no exception. People are our lynchpin in the safe and efficient management of our increasingly busy skies and advances in technological developments across the air traffic management (ATM) industry.

Air Traffic Controllers are only one aspect of the air traffic services provided to commercial and general aviation by NATS. Another aspect is the basic service FISOs (Flight Information Service Officers) give to aircraft operating outside of controlled airspace.

SESAR is showcasing its success stories in a number of critical areas, such as enabling greener aviation, increasing connectivity and mobility, advancing the digitalisation and virtualisation of ATM, and ensuring the safe integration of new types of aircraft, such as unmanned aircraft.