Whiteley-based NATS, the national provider of air traffic services, has won the Duke of Edinburgh’s Navigation Award for Technical Achievement.
NATS accept Royal Institute of Navigation award
The award was presented by the Royal Institute of Navigation, of which the Duke is the patron.
NATS was selected for its development of iFACTS – a set of tools that reduces a controller’s workload and increases the amount of traffic they can safely handle. It provides decision making support and facilitates the early detection of conflicts in and around the sector.
It means controllers can predict aircraft positions, heights and headings up to 18 minutes ahead of time – providing benefits to safety, capacity and the environment.
The institute has described it as “one of the most advanced air traffic control systems in the world”.
Martin Rolfe, NATS Managing Director of Operations, received the award at the Institute’s Annual General Meeting.
He said: “iFACTS has helped revolutionise the way we work, with the amount of air traffic control delay reaching record lows. This is clearly great news for airlines, airports and the flying public and we are delighted that this achievement has been recognised by such a prestigious organisation.”
Peter Chapman-Andrews, Director of the Royal Institute of Navigation said: “I congratulate NATS, and its partners Altran and Lockheed Martin, for having developed iFACTS, an important and impressive innovation that is proving to be so effective at improving air traffic safety and capacity at a time when the long term trend is for the number of flights continues to increase.”
In 2012 iFACTS delivered an average 15 per cent improvement in airspace capacity – with some sectors growing as high as 40 per cent – without increasing the number of operational staff or redesigning of air routes.
As a result, it has added to NATS best ever delay performance, with ATC attributable delay averaging just 1.4 seconds per flight in 2012.