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Swanwick air control centre opens for business
The new £623 million air traffic control centre at Swanwick in Hampshire started operating yesterday.
An Airtours International flight from Las Palmas to Birmingham was the first aircraft to receive instructions from the new centre.
National Air Traffic Services chief executive Richard Everitt said: “Swanwick’s entry into service represents a remarkable technical achievement. Britain can now boast the most technically advanced air traffic control centre in the world.
“Today’s successful switch of en route operations from West Drayton to Swanwick, is one of the largest and most complex logistical transitions in air traffic history. To have achieved this task safely and smoothly is a tribute to the hundreds of people who have made this possible.”
Mr Everitt added: “Swanwick gives us the technological advances and operational headroom we need to handle safely a further million flights a year by 2011, in addition to the two million we handle today. We also plan to shorten flight delays from 1.5 minutes per flight to a new average of one minute or less.”
NATS warned that there may be some initial flight delays caused by the switch to the new centre. In an effort to keep these to a minimum the transfer of operations was planned in conjunction with airlines to take place at a quiet time of year. In addition, NATS also points out that the volume of flights passing through UK airspace is down by 5% on last year due to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Swanwick was originally scheduled to open in 1996. Its opening follows last year’s part-privatisation of NATS, with 46% of the company being taken over by airline consortium the Airline Group which comprises seven UK airlines including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.
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