Gatwick ATC
 

The German company has lost Gatwick and it returns to NATS after 8 (?) years. Does that mean Edinburgh will follow suit ?

More interestingly: why have they lost Gatwick?

Six years, it would appear.

July 2014.

After a break of six years, NATS is back as the air traffic service provider at Gatwick Airport.

The transition from the previous provider occurred overnight on 8-9 October, with all the existing controllers and engineers transferring across to NATS. It means the air traffic service at all five major London airports is being delivered by NATS for the first time since 2016.Working in partnership with the airport, NATS will now concentrate on building the resilience of the air traffic operation. With up to 55 aircraft movements per-hour off its single runway, Gatwick is one of the most challenging airports in the world to be an air traffic controller. A plan to train and recruit new and experienced controllers is already underway and will begin delivering in the coming months.

NATS is also working with the airport to support its longer-term strategic objectives.

NATS is also exploring the feasibility to deploy its Intelligent Approach arrival spacing tool, in what will be a world first for a single runway ‘mixed-mode’ airport, where take-offs and landings occur on the same runway. The tool helps deliver improved resilience against delays and disruption by tailoring the spacing between arriving and departing aircraft.

NATS also plans to work with the industry leading company, Searidge Technologies to evaluate the potential use of new digital air traffic management tools at the airport to further enhance operational performance.

The German company signed a contract until 2025, so why are they jumping ship ? As “FUMR” alludes, why now ?

Perhaps they know what the government is up to ?

Agenda 2030

They're not "jumping ship": the airport exercised their clause to terminate the contract with the previous provider. It's not "now": the transition started around 16 months ago, the transfer handover was last weekend.

Another clue type in this to a search engine....

Absolute-Zero-online

Scary stuff, we are losing all our freedoms

The ATC Contract at Gatwick has transferred to "NATS Solutions" and not "NATS Services"

Same NATS on the corporate face of it, so what's the difference?

https://i.postimg.cc/JhywTgTv/beans.png

Terms and conditions will be woeful. When NATS went from DB to DC on the pension front for new starts, it didn’t take long for morale to nosedive. This is just another “in house” outsourcing exercise to trim the fat and make the contract lucrative. It’s an accident waiting to happen.

Same personnel in the executive positions, have they got their beans in a row?

Not necessarily: TUPE applies to those moving from ANS to NATS Solutions so T&Cs are likely to be similar, as they were when ANS took over the NATS staff 6 years ago. The pension issue is a red herring, that occurred nearly twenty years ago, makes very little difference now. Ultimately, if people don't like it, they'll vote with their feet, as they always have.

That's pretty insulting to the people who work there: they have the same licence, the same qualifications & the same attitude to safety as any other ATCO. There are detail differences at company level between the two of course, but to imply they're somehow lesser ATCOs isn't appropriate.

No insult intended and I most definitely did not suggest that the highly skilled ATC professionals (not just ATCOs!) at Gatwick are in any way lesser. Far from it.

I got TUPE'd once, it didn't take long for the "management" to start putting pressure on (bullying) to accept their (inferior) T&C's

That’s what happened at Birmingham. It was a complete **** show at the time. I don’t know where they are now conditions wise.

I was at Birmingham when the changeover was taking place and it wasn’t a pleasant atmosphere at all. Don’t know what it’s like now.

It would be nice if someone did.

It was 2009. Hardly 20 years ago and I think makes a lot of difference.

I think the bean counters know - even if we don't.