Airport ATC Companies in the UK
 

Hi all,

I'm trying to build a definitive list of Airport ATC Providers in the UK to get a better understanding of the competitive environment for some Uni research and was wondering if I could enlist the help of PPRUNERs to develop it?

I'd like to know for each airport listed below which company directly employs the ATC staff. I'm only interested in providers to civil airfields, not military and I'm familiar with the scope of NATS and HIAL airfields.

Jersey
Guernsey
Belfast City
Biggin Hill
Newcastle
Bristol International
Durham Tees Valley
Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield
Sheffield City
Blackpool
Liverpool John Lennon
Leeds/Bradford
Humberside
Bournemouth
Newquay
Exeter
Plymouth
Nottingham East Midlands
Derry
Shoreham
Isle of Man
Norwich
Prestwick

...and any others with ATC operated by private companies that I may have missed!

Having searched far and wide (including through PPRUNE) I haven't found an exhaustive list, hence my message. Hopefully this would produce a full list that other PPRUNERs could also refer to in the future.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Cheers

NavMonkey

Sheffield City is now just an A/G radio.

On most of that list the provider is the airport company itself-certainly NEMA and Bournemouth fall into that category

NavMonkey
 

Register with www.ais.org.uk
You need UK AIP, select aerodromes; all the contact details are available, together with airport/aerodrome authority title etc.

Add Gloucestershire Airport Ltd to your list, as well as Filton, Cranfield & Southend

Bristol International - in house................at the minute.

Robin Hood & Liverpool - Peel Holdings (The airport owners)
Jersey - NATS
Have to agree most of the others are self operated. What ever happened to Serco operating civil airfields in the UK???

FT

Thanks all, I'd figured that most of the airport ATC was in house but wanted to see in case the ATC had been subcontracted out.

Also, for the Peel operated airports is ATC coordinated in any way between the airports?

Following on from Fly Through's comments do SERCO operate ATC at any UK non-mil airfields and what about Safeskys? Their website talks about lots of airfield clients, but are they just for bird scaring services :confused:

Cheers, NM

Don't think NATS have Jersey but if they do can i put in for a posting please.;) ;)

Things must have changed, NATS used to have Jersey.......if they don't, anyone got an address?

Serco operate Scatsta.......er...... think that's it for completely civil fields.

Peel operate the towers and provide radar for both from Liverpool.

Safeskys....hmmmm....no contracts as such I think but have be known to place people, I'm sure Gisajob will be along shortly to correct that.

FT

Newquay Cornwall Airport doesn't exist in its own right, it is based on RAF St Mawgan. The airport owners have a contract with the MOD and "share" the airport services with the RAF incliuding ATC, Fire, Bird Control. The future is uncertain, the MOD Contract expires Mar 2007 and the RAF have announced they intend to cease flying and place the airfield into "care & maintenance" by April 2007. There is a strong will to keep NCA running beyond that, (see various links under airports & routes) but there is stil a lot to be sorted out... not least persuading the RAF/MOD to renew the existing contract?

Serco provide tower only at North Denes heliport ,Great Yarmouth

Serco provide Approach and Tower at Cranfield/EGTC.

The "modern" NATS - nor any of its predecessors ever provided services in the Channel Islands.

The best place to research this topic would be on the ais website

www.ais.org.uk

Serco also provide air traffic services ( tower and approach radar) at Hawarden/EGNR.

hate to contradict peatair but Jersey definitely used to be a NATS contract (according to my old instructor at CATC), dunno about its current status though.

It must of been pre late 1970's if it was. In which case, it would probably not have been called NATS back then.

I can recall a conversation with a long since retired ATCO, who said he had worked at Guernsey Airport, back in the days of 'The Ministry of Civil Aviation'. Perhaps he was on 'secondment', or did the MCA have the contract, way back then?

I was under the impression that for at least the past 30 odd years, the States of Jersey and Guernsey have directly employed their own ATCOs.

Contracted ATC Services
 

Thanks Fly Through,

Over the last 13 years, Safeskys has provided Air Traffic Control Services (Air Traffic Control Officers) to BAe Woodford, Benbecula, Carlisle Airport, Dundee, Sheffield City Airport and total Air Traffic Control Services to Swansea Airport. We have bid against NATS and Serco for the provision of total Air Traffic Control Services at Wattisham, Gloucester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Gibraltar Airport, Birmingham International Airport, North Denes, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Battersea, Liverpool and on every occasion we have been fully technically & commercially compliant against the bid requirement and on 80% of occasions we have offered the keenest price. We beat Serco and NATS at Gloucester but the Airport decided to keep Air Traffic Control Services in house. We beat Serco at Wattisham Station by over £1,000,000 but perversely the RAF ATC Branch advised the Army to award the contract to Serco. We offered Birmingham International Airport a better deal than NATS but they decided to stay with the big provider. Airports have sometimes been reluctant to award the contract to a small enterprise which is a pity as we can do the job just as well as the big boys (some, notably our staff, would say better !!).

So the answer to the enquiry is that there are three main providers of Air Traffic Control Services outside of airports.

We await the MoD decision this month on the provision of Air Traffic Control Services to Gibraltar Airport.


Gisajob

Alas, without track record as big boys, staff opinion is just that - an opinion :ok: