Air traffi c management As free as the air
In December 2021, NATS implemented the biggest ever geographical airspace change in the UK, removing long-established air routes over Scotland and freeing aircraft to choose their most direct fl ight path. Free route airspace has been in development for over fi ve years, and will help to reduce cost, fuel burn, fl ight time and CO2
emissions. Nicholas Kenny talks to Lee
Boulton, head of airspace development at NATS, about what this change will mean for air traffi c operations and what work was involved in making FRA a reality in the UK.
T
he rules and regulations that govern our skies may seem as ethereal as the air itself to the average traveller and yet, without them, safe air travel would be impossible. While these rules have remained largely the same since they were first implemented decades ago, recent technological advancements have enabled air traffic controllers in the UK to implement a new system to manage flight paths. On 2 December 2021, NATS – the UK’s leading provider of air traffic control services – implemented the biggest ever airspace change undertaken in its history by introducing free route airspace (FRA) for the first time in British skies. This involved removing traditional airspace structures above 25,500ft, allowing airlines to plan and fly their preferred route between a defined entry and exit point. It gives aircraft greater flexibility when determining their optimal flight plan, enabling pilots
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to take factors such as weather and wind speed into account when up in the air. NATS had been developing FRA for over five years – prior to this the level of flexibility FRA provides had not been possible. The previous airspace structure requiring aircraft to follow predefined routes – something that Lee Boulton, head of airspace development at NATS, likens to “motorways in the sky”, with set points of intersections between routes where aircraft could potentially cross to other paths and interact with a different route. Now, thanks to new technology and navigational techniques, along with cross-border collaboration, FRA can help make flying at high levels of altitude much more efficient – reducing cost, fuel burn, flight time and CO2
emissions.
“Most importantly, [FRA] offers the benefits of quicker and cleaner journeys through UK airspace,” Boulton notes. “Ultimately, modernising our airspace is
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