Air Traffic Control Services

Date 15.03.2013

Last night (14 March), NATS, the UK’s leading provider of air traffic services, and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) were awarded the prestigious Transport Times London 2012 Transport Team Award for their partnership delivering safe, secure and efficient air traffic management throughout the London 2012 Olympic Games.

NATS also picked up the award for Contribution to Sustainable Transportation for its 3Di environmental metric.

The Olympic award, which was presented by Sir Peter Hendy CBE, acknowledges the planning, outreach, teamwork and operational excellence that enabled London’s skies to remain fully functional during the largest peacetime military operation the UK has ever seen.

“Anyone working in the London transport sector understands the complexity of this thriving, bustling city” said Paul Haskins, General Manager, London Terminal Control, NATS. “To be recognised for our contribution to keeping London moving during an event as challenging and visible as the Olympics is a real honour.  Our close collaboration with the MoD in the years preceding the Games and over the summer was absolutely instrumental in ensuring that residents and visitors could rely on safe and efficient air travel.”

“Outside the normal parameters of the 24/7 air policing coverage provided by the MoD for UK airspace, creating a security-assured, known-traffic environment throughout the Olympic Games challenged the MoD to implement new ways of working with commercial, recreational and military air traffic.” said Air Vice-Marshal Stuart Atha, Air Officer Commanding No 1 Group and Air Component Commander for the Olympics.

“Working alongside NATS, we created a bespoke air traffic control operation dedicated exclusively to securing London’s skies. This award is a testament to the level of commitment that went into delivering security-assured airspace without impacting the business-as-usual flows of commercial traffic.”

Over the course of the Olympic Games there were only 593 minutes of delay to commercial flights attributable to NATS, compared with 13,300 over the same period in 2011 – a 95% reduction.  NATS generated just 0.1 per cent of total European delay attributable to ATC, despite handling nearly a quarter of Europe’s traffic including an influx of over 850 additional commercial and Heads of State flights. And the MoD ably met the UK government’s number one priority of ensuring the security of the skies above London.

NATS also won in the “Contribution to Sustainable Transport” category for 3Di, NATS’ revolutionary environmental efficiency metric, which tracks the environmental performance of every flight in UK airspace to enable NATS to make emissions-saving improvements to its operation.

"3Di has been a remarkable success story since its introduction over a year ago." said Ian Jopson, Head of Environmental and Community Affairs, NATS. "We've already been able to use the data 3Di generates to enhance the environmental efficiency of our operation, saving emissions as well as fuel costs."

The London Transport Awards, in association with Transport Times magazine, were judged by Transport Times publisher Professor David Begg, Chair of the Judging panel and publisher of Transport Times; Janet Cooke,  Chief Executive, London Travel Watch; Nick Lester, Director of Transport, Environment and Planning, London Councils and Elsie Owusu OBE, Principal Partner of Fielden & Mawson.