NATS keeps Olympic air traffic flowing

With the London Olympics opening tonight, NATS’ Air Traffic Incident Crisis Communications Cell (ATICCC) – which proved so effective in co-ordinating communications during the volcanic eruptions in 2010 and 2011 – is actively supporting NATS’ Olympic operation.

ATICCC went live on 19 July with a 24/7 support team and a daily conference call including representatives of the UK/Ireland FAB, the Department of Network Management at Eurocontrol, the UK’s Department of Transport Olympics hub, airlines, airports and the UK Met Office.

Since Wednesday, the conference calls have been ramped up to three per day to ensure airlines and airports have the very latest information to help them plan their operations.

So far the anticipated additional flights as a result of the Olympics have been managed efficiently by our Operations and we have ensured that no delay or regulations have been used.

Paul Haskins, NATS’ Olympics Director, said: “Everything is going very smoothly so far. We have had a total of three security events to date but we have a well-rehearsed system in place with the military and they have caused minimal disruption to civil traffic. This is in no small part due to the extensive planning and training we have carried out over the past few years.

“ATICCC is a fantastic means of ensuring we can stay in close touch with our customers throughout the Olympics. It is purely a communications cell and is manned by our Customer Affairs team, Corporate Communication and Operations teams, who can rely on regular input from airfields and our own network management specialists, too.

“It is a tried and trusted system and we will be supporting it 24/7 till the end of the Olympics – the longest continuous ATICCC activity we have ever supported.”