NATS Altitude
Episodes
The next chapter in airport transformation - PTE special
25 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The latest episode of Altitude comes from Passenger Terminal Expo (PTE), the global gathering of the people shaping the future of airports. From infra...
What can aviation learn from migrating geese?
06 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this month’s Altitude, we look beyond the horizon of traditional aviation to explore one of the most promising innovations in sustainable flight:...
Planning for Summer 2026
02 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Air traffic control is often judged by what passengers see on the day, but long before an aircraft pushes back, teams across Europe have been spending...
"Aviation Doesn't Need to Choose Between Flying and the Future"
30 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This month's Altitude shines a light on aviation’s most pressing challenge - reducing its environmental impact. The panel has a fascinating di...
From Innovation to Integration: Building the UK's Drone Economy
10 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this month's Altitude, we walked the floor at DroneX Tradeshow & Conference to get the very latest news and views on the UK uncrewed aviat...
Inside the National Police Air Service's Amazing Drone Trial
18 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The National Police Air Service (NPAS) has launched one of the UK’s most ambitious trials of uncrewed aircraft in support of frontline policing.In t...
Engineering the Future of Flight
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In celebration of International Women in Engineering Day, we invited three amazing aerospace engineers to share their stories.Josna Joies from NATS ta...
Beyond Digital Towers: Airport Digitisation and the Great Data Convergence
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Aviation is at a crossroads. On one side is the familiarity of legacy systems, including decades-old air traffic control infrastructure and manual gr...
Time Flies: A decade of smarter, greener air traffic management
27 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A decade ago, NATS became the first air traffic management service in the world to introduce Time-Based Separation in a groundbreaking collaboration w...
Cleared for Green? The Future of Sustainable Aviation
21 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The race to net-zero aviation is on, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. In this month's Altitude we're taking you inside the cutting edge ...
Inside Heathrow's Airport Operations Centre
15 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Beyond the tower and the terminals lies the APOC – Heathrow’s Airport Operations Centre.From here, up to 50 people from across the airport communi...
Drones: Redefining Industries, Revolutionising Lives
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From keeping us safe and reducing our climate impact to delivering hot meals in just three minutes – just some of the incredible drone use cases we ...
Tips and Advice for Future Trainee Air Traffic Controllers
04 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
NATS has just reopened recruitment for trainee air traffic controllers, but what does that process look like and what kind of career can successful ca...
Beyond the Beaches: The amazing aviation innovations behind D-Day
31 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The 6th June 2024 will mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day – the Allied invasion of Western Europe during the Second World War and one of the most pi...
Serving from the skies - London's amazing emergency services pilots
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With such unique requirements, one of the most essential and complex users of our skies are the emergency services. In this month’s Altitude, we’...
30 - Shaping our future skies
15 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From delivering airspace modernisation and integrating drones through to understanding the impact of AI and the ever pressing need to address aviation...
29 - Winter Operations: Finnish Snow-how
01 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ice, snow, howling winds and temperatures as low as minus 30.C are hardly ideal conditions to be running an international airport, but that’s the re...
28 - The Human Factor
25 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Human Factors is the understanding of ‘the human in the loop’. It’s about how people behave and interact both with technology and each other, an...
27 - Concorde: 20 years on
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For more than 25 years, Concorde was the world's only successful supersonic airliner. Flying faster than the rotation of the earth, it could cros...
26 - Artificial Intelligence and Aviation
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Can we expect Artificial Intelligence – heralded by just about everyone as the next great technology leap forward - to have a role in air traffic ma...
25 - Airspace Modernisation: Transforming the Skies
27 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Airspace – our invisible motorways in the sky – is the underpinning of the entire aviation industry. Vital to the safe operation of tens of thousa...
24 - Marking the 75th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift
26 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Berlin Airlift was a significant episode in the beginnings of the Cold War, with American, British, and French aircrews flying hundreds of daily c...
23 - Operation Golden Orb: Planning the King's Coronation Flypast
11 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
While the weather may have played its part, Saturday 6 May saw a wonderful flypast over central London to mark the coronation of King Charles III. But...
22 - How to become an Air Traffic Controller
21 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
NATS has just reopened recruitment for trainee air traffic controllers, but what does that process look like and what kind of career can successful ca...
21 - Mourning a Monarch: Silencing the skies for the State Funeral of The Queen
13 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As the world mourned the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, plans for the first state funeral of a British monarch in more than 70 years were be...
20 - Drones: Realising the Uncrewed Aviation Revolution
25 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From transforming how urgent goods are moved around the world to surveying infrastructure in remote, dangerous environments and aiding accurate, rapid...
19 - Memories of 9/11: Shutting Down the Sky
20 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This year is the 21st anniversary of the tragic events of 11 September 2001. Those of us who are old enough to remember it will never forget where we ...
18 - Urban Air Mobility: Air taxis and aviation's next generation
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode of Altitude we’re exploring the next generation of aviation and airspace users.Air taxis, mass drone operations and spaceports may soun...
17 - Being a controller at the Royal International Air Tattoo
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s airshow season!The sight and sound of stunning air displays and incredible aerobatic performances by some of the world’s best pilots is hard ...
16 - Reimagining air traffic management for a post Covid world
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After a tumultuous two years it feels like the aviation industry is finally emerging from the shadow of the Covid crisis.But while the skies are getti...
15 - Whatever the weather
05 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The weather influences all our lives, from whether you’ll regret not taking that umbrella to wishing you’d packed the sun cream, but for air traff...
14 - General Aviation: Returning to the Skies
24 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As the days get longer and the weather improves, aviation enthusiasts across the country will be taking to the skies in their thousands to explore the...
13 - Dealing with Emergencies: The story of BAW38
31 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On 17 January 2008, flight BAW38 crash landed short of the runway at Heathrow Airport following a total loss of power to both engines. Remarkably ther...
12 - Die Hard 2: Myth-busting a Christmas Classic
05 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Aside from being one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time, the timeless classic Die Hard 2 also features some of the closest depictions of air...
11 - Reopening, Recovering and Resilience: The Future of Airport Operations
23 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After a hiatus of 18 months, the World ATM Congress returns to Madrid at the end of the month, but what kind of show can we expect as the industry con...
10 - Chief Executive Special
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Altitude is a monthly podcast from NATS.The last 18 months has been a period of extraordinary turmoil for the aviation industry, and even now as much ...
9 - Volcanic Ash: Preparing for the Unexpected
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Altitude is a monthly podcast from NATS. It’s now 11 years since a huge volcanic eruption in Iceland grounded flights across the UK and much of nor...
8 - Into The Danger Zone: RAF Special
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Altitude is a monthly podcast from NATS. From sonic booms and Quick Reaction Alert to deployments during Covid and military training exercises, are y...
7 - The Unseen World of International Air Cargo
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Altitude is a monthly podcast from NATS. From delivering fresh Norwegian crab to South Korea through to supporting the worldwide vaccine roll out, ev...
6 - Can aviation really deliver a Net Zero future?
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Altitude is a monthly podcast from NATS. Climate change represents an existential challenge to the aviation industry. We need to act now not just bec...
5 - Airport recovery: a vision for post-covid operations
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Altitude is a monthly podcast from NATS. While the industry may now be eyeing the prospect of a recovery from the covid crisis, for many airports, pl...
4 - Research and Innovation Priorities for Aviation in a Post-Covid World
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Altitude is a monthly podcast from NATS. COVID-19 has had a massive impact on air travel, with traffic and passenger figures reduced to pre-2000 leve...
3 - The Birth of Air Traffic Control: 100 years of keeping the skies safe
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Altitude is a monthly podcast from NATS.On 25 February 1920, the UK Air Ministry gave approval for the construction of a new building at London Croydo...
2 - Going digital: Are digital control towers really the future?
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Altitude is a monthly podcast from NATS. A decade ago, digital towers were a niche concept, confined to a small part of the industry. Today and they ...
1 - History in the making: Introducing space-based ADS-B over the North Atlantic
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Altitude is a monthly podcast from NATS.Heathrow air traffic controller Ady Dolan is joined by Rob Mitchell, Manager ATC Development, Ocean, and Aireo...