NATS Services, the commercial arm of the UK’s leading Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP), announced this week it is collaborating with Altitude Angel, a leader in Unified Traffic Management (UTM) and creator of the 165 mile UK drone superhighway, “to revolutionise the way the sky is managed for new airspace users,” reports a press release. The announcement was made on the first day of Airspace World Expo in Geneva.
The release states, “The partnership will enable competitive and innovative services to integrate new airspace users, while maintaining safe operations for its existing commercial aviation customers. This deal will also see GuardianUTM Flight Approval Services being deployed at some NATS-controlled airports later in 2024, allowing for digitally managed UTM flight requests and approvals and enhanced situational awareness.”
The collaboration also accelerates Altitude Angel’s roll-out of its transformative ARROW technology, which when combined with the GuardianUTM platform, detects and identifies all airspace users, enabling drones to fly BVLOS and share the airspace with crewed aviation safely and securely.
Guy Adams, MD of NATS Services, commented, “This partnership with Altitude Angel is a milestone in UK aviation, bringing together the technology, operational expertise and innovation that will allow us to further support the industry. Supporting the development of New Airspace Users through airspace integration and the provision of new services is one of our strategic priorities.”
He continued, “The collaboration also allows us to further embrace the integration of this new generation of airspace users, while continuing to deliver the very highest standards of safety and efficiency.”
Proposed 165 mile UK Drone Superhighway (Images: Daily Mail)
Richard Parker, Altitude Angel Founder and CEO, added, “This partnership brings together in-depth knowledge, real-world experience, and, most importantly, a shared vision for a future where the skies are not just open but interconnected, where traditional and emerging aviation seamlessly coexist.”
Background
NATS is the UK’s primary ANSP and is split into two main businesses providing two distinct services:-
• NATS (En Route) plc (NERL), the regulated business, which provides air traffic management services to aircraft within UK airspace and over the eastern part of the North Atlantic.
• NATS (Services) Ltd (NSL), the unregulated business, which provides air traffic control services at many of the UK’s major airports (15 civil and 7 military airfields) and other airports overseas.
• NATS provides UTM, aerodrome, data, engineering, capacity, efficiency and environmental performance solutions to customers worldwide, including airports, airlines, air traffic service providers and governments.
(Image Credit: Altitude Angel)
Altitude Angel is an award-winning provider of UTM software, enabling those planning to operate or develop UTM/U‑Space solutions, to rapidly integrate data and services with little effort. Its technologies include Common Information Service (CIS), UTM Service Provider (USSP), and UTM Supplemental Data Services Provider (SDSP) capabilities, combined on a central platform and connected to hundreds of thousands of drone pilots worldwide.
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