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NATS is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP), with the Government holding a 49% share. The Airline Group, a consortium of Airtours, British Airways , Bmi , Britannia, EasyJet , Virgin Atlantic , and Monarch, holds 42%. The remaining shares are owned by BAA Plc (4%) and NATS staff (5%).

It is split into two main service provision companies, NATS En-Route Ltd. (NERL) and NATS Services Ltd. (NSL). NATs (En Route) Ltd. is a regulated business which holds the monopoly of Civilian Air Traffic control over the UK; NATS (Services) Ltd. competes for contracts to provide air traffic control at airports in the UK and overseas. NATS (En-Route) Ltd is regulated by the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) who, for example, can place price caps for the charge NATS can charge its customers. NATS (Services) Ltf. has won contracts for all of UK BAA owned airports (Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow) and several other non-BAA airports (including London City, Cardiff, Birmingham, Manchester & Belfast).

There are four main NATS control centres across the UK.
  • London Terminal Control Centre (LTCC) at West Drayton controls low level traffic in the London Terminal Manoeuvring Area (TMA).

  • London Area Control Centre (LACC) at Swanwick , Hampshire , controls en-route traffic across England and Wales.

  • Manchester Area Control Centre (MACC) at Manchester International Airport controls local traffic around Manchester and the north of England .

  • Scottish and Oceanic Area Control Centre (ScOACC) at Prestwick controls all Scottish and Northern Irish traffic and also provides procedural control for traffic crossing the North Atlantic.


The two main skill sets employed in NATS are Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs) and Air Traffic Control Engineers (ATCEs).

Richard Everett departed as CEO of NATS in mid- 2004 and was replaced by Paul Barron , former Managing Director of Alstom UK.

On June 3 2004 NATS was forced to apologise for widespread disruption in the UK and European continent caused by the temporary loss of an air traffic control computer.

NATS is a shareholder in European Satellite Services Provider (ESSP), a company set up to operate the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS).


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