NATS Altitude

By NATS - UK air traffic control

What's NATS Altitude about?

Altitude is a monthly live-streamed podcast from NATS - the UK's leading air traffic control company. Here people from across the aviation industry join our own team of experts to offer insights on a wide range of topics. Find out more about the world of air traffic control at NATS.aero. 

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NATS Altitude episodes:

05.31.2024
Beyond the Beaches: The amazing aviation innovations behind D-Day
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 pivotal days in human history.Most people will be familiar with the sight...
04.24.2024
Serving from the skies - London's amazing emergency services pilots
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’re joined by pilots Captain Andrew Brandt from the National Police Air Service and Captain David Rolfe...
03.15.2024
30 - Shaping our future skies
From delivering airspace modernisation and integrating drones through to understanding the impact of AI and the ever pressing need to address aviation’s climate impact, the list of priorities for leaders in air traffic management is a long and complex one....
03.01.2024
29 - Winter Operations: Finnish Snow-how
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 reality for the team at Rovaniemi, Finland’s second busiest airport. In beautiful Lapland, sitting on the...
01.25.2024
28 - The Human Factor
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, and it’s something that has become fundamental to safety across aviation and a host of other...
11.30.2023
27 - Concorde: 20 years on
For more than 25 years, Concorde was the world's only successful supersonic airliner. Flying faster than the rotation of the earth, it could cross the Atlantic in just two and a half hours, with passengers arriving at JFK before they...
11.09.2023
26 - Artificial Intelligence and Aviation
Can we expect Artificial Intelligence – heralded by just about everyone as the next great technology leap forward - to have a role in air traffic management? But how can we look beyond the hype and understand what this technology...
07.27.2023
25 - Airspace Modernisation: Transforming the Skies
Airspace – our invisible motorways in the sky – is the underpinning of the entire aviation industry. Vital to the safe operation of tens of thousands of flights every single day, it is an infrastructure relied on 24 hours a...
06.26.2023
24 - Marking the 75th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift was a significant episode in the beginnings of the Cold War, with American, British, and French aircrews flying hundreds of daily cargo flights to deliver essential supplies into a West Berlin blockaded by the Soviet Union.Despite impossible...
05.11.2023
23 - Operation Golden Orb: Planning the King's Coronation Flypast
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 what does it really take to organise such a spectacle in what is...
04.21.2023
22 - How to become an Air Traffic Controller
NATS has just reopened recruitment for trainee air traffic controllers, but what does that process look like and what kind of career can successful candidates look forward to?In this episode of Altitude we’re exploring the whole recruitment process, from understanding...
02.13.2023
21 - Mourning a Monarch: Silencing the skies for the State Funeral of The Queen
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 being put into action. As a mark of respect, it was...
11.25.2022
20 - Drones: Realising the Uncrewed Aviation Revolution
From transforming how urgent goods are moved around the world to surveying infrastructure in remote, dangerous environments and aiding accurate, rapid emergency response, uncrewed aviation has long promised to revolutionise our lives and the aviation industry.But unleashing that potential means...
09.20.2022
19 - Memories of 9/11: Shutting Down the Sky
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 were or what we were doing when we heard the news....
08.18.2022
18 - Urban Air Mobility: Air taxis and aviation's next generation
This episode of Altitude we’re exploring the next generation of aviation and airspace users.Air taxis, mass drone operations and spaceports may sound like science fiction, but it is a future that is far closer than you might thinkWithin a few...
07.07.2022
17 - Being a controller at the Royal International Air Tattoo
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 to beat.But with Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) just a week away, what does it take to...
06.09.2022
16 - Reimagining air traffic management for a post Covid world
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 getting busier, the recovery remains uncertain and uneven, especially in many parts of the world.What...
05.05.2022
15 - Whatever the weather
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 traffic control the weather is an obsession. Rain, wind, snow, fog and thunderstorms can all conspire...
03.24.2022
14 - General Aviation: Returning to the Skies
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 world from up above.After two years of Covid restrictions limiting the amount of flying...
01.31.2022
13 - Dealing with Emergencies: The story of BAW38
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 there were no fatalities, but it remains the most serious commercial aircraft accident in the...
01.05.2022
12 - Die Hard 2: Myth-busting a Christmas Classic
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 traffic control yet committed to celluloidThe story of how a terrorist group manages...
10.23.2021
11 - Reopening, Recovering and Resilience: The Future of Airport Operations
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 continues to feel the effects of the Covid crisis? ...
09.30.2021
10 - Chief Executive Special
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 of the rest of the world begins to recover, UK air traffic remains at...
08.23.2021
9 - Volcanic Ash: Preparing for the Unexpected
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 northwest Europe. For six days in April 2010, the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull (or E-15)...
08.23.2021
8 - Into The Danger Zone: RAF Special
Altitude is a monthly podcast from NATS. From sonic booms and Quick Reaction Alert to deployments during Covid and military training exercises, are you ready to explore the world of 78 Squadron? The UK is one of the few countries...
08.23.2021
7 - The Unseen World of International Air Cargo
Altitude is a monthly podcast from NATS. From delivering fresh Norwegian crab to South Korea through to supporting the worldwide vaccine roll out, every year millions of tonnes of freight is flown in our skies in what is 24 hour...
08.23.2021
6 - Can aviation really deliver a Net Zero future?
Altitude is a monthly podcast from NATS. Climate change represents an existential challenge to the aviation industry. We need to act now not just because it’s the right thing to do for the future of our planet, but because failure...
08.23.2021
4 - Research and Innovation Priorities for Aviation in a Post-Covid World
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 levels in many regions, but there remains cause to be optimistic about the future… Unmanned aviation,...
08.23.2021
5 - Airport recovery: a vision for post-covid operations
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, plans for expensive new ground-based infrastructure may yet remain on ice for the foreseeable...
08.23.2021
3 - The Birth of Air Traffic Control: 100 years of keeping the skies safe
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 Croydon Airport, to be ‘erected 15 feet above ground level’ and with ‘large windows to...
08.23.2021
2 - Going digital: Are digital control towers really the future?
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 are an operational reality for airports around the world. From London to Singapore...
08.23.2021
1 - History in the making: Introducing space-based ADS-B over the North Atlantic
Altitude is a monthly podcast from NATS.Heathrow air traffic controller Ady Dolan is joined by Rob Mitchell, Manager ATC Development, Ocean, and Aireon CTO Vinny Capezzuto for a lively discussion charting the highs and lows of introducing Space Based ADS-B...
05.25.2021
Can aviation really deliver a Net Zero future?
Climate change represents an existential challenge to the aviation industry. We need to act now not just because it’s the right thing to do for the future of our planet, but because failure to do so will see flying become...