NATS pioneers biggest ATC advance since radar

A set of computer-based predictive tools developed by NATS will trigger the biggest change in Air Traffic Control since the introduction of radar.

iFACTS – Interim Future Area Control Tools Support – will further improve safety and provide Controllers with a set of advanced support tools, which will enable them to increase the amount of traffic they can comfortably handle. In trials, the system has delivered significant capacity increases.

NATS, the UK’s leading air traffic services provider, has pioneered research and development of advanced air traffic control tools for several years from its simulator and research centre at Hurn. The iFACTS project will deliver a subset of these tools onto the system at the company’s main en-route Control Centre at Swanwick in Hampshire.

“This is one of the most exciting developments in the aviation industry in decades and we’re now very close indeed to introducing it,” said Paul Barron, NATS’ Chief Executive.

“As well as giving us the tools to increase capacity at the rate our customers tell us they need, iFACTS also alerts Controllers early to flights which are not following their flight plan and detects medium term conflicts, which will also enhance our safety capability. All in all, these tools will provide our Controllers with some of the most advanced air traffic control systems in the world.”

The system monitors radar for the Controllers, and assesses the viability of various options available to them for manoeuvring aircraft, as well as giving them more time to make decisions. Traditional paper flight information strips will be replaced with electronic data lines and more sophisticated split-screen displays. The system has been designed for robustness, and has built-in contingency.

iFACTS, as an interim tool, will provide capacity increases needed before the launch of the next-generation electronic Flight Data Processing (FDP) system. The full FACTS tool set will be a key component of the new FDP system, which is a major pillar of NATS’ investment programme to increase UK capacity from 2.3 million flights a year today, to 3m by 2013.

Final trials of the iFACTS tools are currently under way at Hurn and a demonstration system is already installed in Swanwick’s training unit for controllers to try out. Following full development, training, and installation of new workstations at Swanwick, iFACTS will be introduced into service.