COMMENT
Now’s the time to shape airspace for the future Richard Deakin, CEO, NATS This year marks the 25th anniversary of London City Airport – which has grown in that short space of time to be the fifth busiest airport serving London. Heathrow, the busiest 2-runway airport in the world, is less than 30 miles away; Gatwick, the busiest single-runway airport in the world, less than 50 miles south. Luton and Stansted, also in the top five busiest UK airports, are a stone’s throw to the north. Some 1.3 million flights climb and descend every year through the tight confines of the London TMA, making it amongst the most complex airspace in the world. London City opened as a short take off and landing airport with airspace designed around turboprops. Today it operates jets – which have a completely different set of performance criteria and corresponding airspace requirements. Just as London City’s needs have changed over the past 25 years, so have the needs of the whole of the UK network, which has developed around individual airport expansion on a reactive and incremental basis. This approach will not be sufficient in the future, and a new integrated approach is needed if the UK is to address increased demand in the years ahead. Heathrow is already operating at around 98% capacity and aviation traffic movements are forecast to grow by almost 50% by 2030. Now is the time to modernise and shape UK aviation capacity strategically, mindful of the European and transatlantic network that sits around us. The Government is about to start a second round of consultation on aviation policy and hub capacity – and there has never been a more important opportunity to ensure airspace is given the same priority as tarmac. Our controllers are immensely skilled at getting the best possible performance out of constrained infrastructure, and ensuring our busy airspace is as efficient as it can be. Based on delay, the UK is more than twice as efficient as Germany, the closest market in terms of size and complexity.
World ATMs by Runway Number for Top Airports 2010
10 QUARTER 1 2012
AIRSPACE