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National Air Traffic ServicesNational Air Traffic Services Ltd. (NATS) is the United Kingdom's main air traffic control service provider. It was partly privatised in 2001 by the ruling Labour Party, despite a large backbench rebellion. NATS is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP), with the government holding a 49% majority share. The Airline Group, a consortium of Airtours, British Airways, bmi British Midland, Britannia, easyJet, Virgin Atlantic, and Monarch, holds 42%. The remaining shares are owned by BAA plc (4%)and NATS staff (5%.) It is split into two main service provision companies, NATS En-Route Ltd. (NERL) and NATS Services Ltd. (NSL). NERL is regulated by the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) which, in simple terms, means that it has to seek approval from the CAA for any changes to its charging structure. NSL, the unregulated side of the business, provides Air Traffic Services (ATS) under contract at all of the UK BAA owned airports (Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow) and several other non-BAA airports (including London City, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester & Belfast). There are four main NATS control centres across the UK. - London Terminal Control Centre (LTCC) at West Drayton controls low level traffic around the London area.
- London Area Control Centre (LACC) at Swanwick, Hampshire, controls en-route traffic across England and Wales.
- Manchester Area Control Centre (MACC) at Manchester Airport controls local traffic around Manchester and the north of England.
- Scottish and Oceanic Area Control Centre (ScOACC) at Prestwick controls all Scottish and Northern Irish traffic and also provides procedural control for traffic crossing the North Atlantic.
The two main skill sets employed in NATS are Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs) and Air Traffic Control Engineers (ATCEs). Richard Everett departed as CEO of NATS in mid-2004 and was replaced by Paul Barron, former Managing Director of Alstom UK. On June 3 2004 NATS was forced to apologise for widespread disruption in the UK and European continent caused by the temporary loss of an air traffic control computer. External link
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