Catalogue description Records of National Air Traffic Services

In 1946, a unified Air Traffic Control Organisation was established when the newly formed Ministry of Civil Aviation took over responsibility for civil aircraft from the Royal Air Force. Five air traffic control centres, run jointly by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Air Ministry, were set up at Inverness, Prestwick, Preston, Gloucester and Uxbridge. From 1959 these centres were under the general direction of an Air Traffic Control Board.

In October 1960 an Interdepartmental Working Party, under the chairmanship of Air Chief Marshal Sir Hubert Patch, was set up by the Air Traffic Control Board to study the future of air traffic control up to 1975. This recommended a common system of air traffic control to be administered by a unified organisation. The post of Chief Executive, Air Traffic Control, was created in the Ministry of Aviation on 1 January 1962, responsible jointly to the Minister of Aviation and the Secretary of State for Air. At the end of that year parts of the air traffic control organisations previously belonging to the Ministry of Aviation and the Air Ministry were merged into an organisation known as the National Air Traffic Control Services (NATCS).

In 1966 the civil aviation functions of the Ministry of Aviation, including NATCS, were transferred to the Board of Trade, where a new Civil Aviation Department was set up. On the merger of the Board of Trade and the Ministry of Technology in 1970 to form the Department of Trade and Industry the new department took over all the Board of Trade's civil aviation functions. Most of these, which included NATCS, subsequently passed to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) which was set up in 1972. At the same time NATCS was re-named the National Air Traffic Services (NATS).

During its time in the CAA, NATS has been subject to frequent small-scale reorganisations. Essentially, however, it has had three main arms: for policy/administration, operations, and engineering.

The function of NATS is to secure the safe, orderly and expeditious flow of air traffic within United Kingdom airspace. It provides the navigation services necessary at over 20 civil aerodromes, including the major UK airports. It also provides air traffic services for aircraft flying over the north-eastern quarter of the North Atlantic - a responsibility assigned to the UK by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

NATS runs two main air traffic control centres, the London Air Traffic Control Centre at West Drayton in Middlesex and the Scottish and Oceanic Air Traffic Control Centre at Prestwick in Scotland, from which the whole range of air traffic control, advisory and information services in UK airspace are provided.

The Chief Executive of NATS is directly responsible to the CAA Managing Director and to the Civil Aviation Authority Board. In 1995 his organisation comprised three main directorates for: policy and plans, air traffic operations, projects and engineering, and smaller units for finance, personnel, quality assurance, safety, security, and research and development. There is also a management support unit. In addition to the work of these main directorates and units, NATS undertakes a number of specialist tasks such as recording and analysing airmisses.

NATS provides two important information services: Aeronautical Information Publication (containing information for pilots on aerodromes, navigational aids, metereological services, communications and air traffic services, in accordance with ICAO standards); Aeronautical Information Service (which issues Notices to Airmen giving up-to-date information to pilots about anything which might affect their flying).

NATS has three major support units: Telecommunications Engineering Establishment, Air Traffic Control Evaluation Unit and the Civil Aviation Flying Unit.

Responsibility for the Government's aviation obligations in the international sphere is vested in the Department of Transport for civil matters and the Ministry of Defence for military matters. Within the overall policy control exercised by these departments, and on their behalf, NATS discharges the operational, technical and financial air traffic service commitments arising from UK membership of the ICAO, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, and the NATO Committee for European Airspace Co-ordination.

NATS also has two colleges to train staff for air traffic services: the College of Air Traffic Control, where trainee air traffic controllers undergo intensive courses, including theory and simulators, before progressing to on-the-job training at active air traffic control units; and the College of Telecommunications Engineering, which trains air traffic engineers in all aspects of aviation telecommunications.

In April 1996 NATS became a public limited company, wholly owned by the Civil Aviation Authority.