The number of flights in UK airspace continues to grow – how can you guarantee safety?
Safety is NATS’ first priority and always will be. The company’s principal task is to ensure aircraft under our control are safely separated. In 2007, there was one loss of separation between aircraft which might have posed a risk; the same as in the previous year despite rising traffic levels. We pioneered safety management systems in the air traffic control industry and continue to monitor trends and incidents to see what safety lessons can be learned and what preventive measures can be put in place. We are actively involved in anticipating safety events and have rigorous reporting structures in place so that we can learn from each incident, however minor. We fund and operate the Lower Airspace Radar System (LARS), a system to advise private flyers where they are in relation to controlled airspace over southern England used by commercial airliners – despite the fact that this is not part of our licence obligation. Since the launch in September 2007, more than 250 infringements have b
