NATS TERMINAL CONTROL NORTH CONSULTATION MEETING AT HEATHROW – 4 APRIL 2008

CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S MEETING SUMMARY

 

·                    NATS have issued the Consultation Document on proposed changes to the airspace over London and the south east known as Terminal Control North.  The proposal includes the establishment of P-RNAV routes in and out of Luton, Stansted, Heathrow, London City and Northolt. The consultation process began on 21 February 2008 and closes on 22 May 2008.

 

·                    As part of the consultation process, formal meetings have been arranged to allow discussion between the airspace designers from NATS and various interested parties. I attended two such meetings at Heathrow on 4 April 2008. These events were targeted respectively at the GA community (am) and the airline and airport operators (pm).

 

·                    The basic intent of the proposal is to provide more efficient utilisation of the available airspace in light of the increased traffic to all airports in the south east, enhanced safety, reduced delays and noise footprints over populated areas by repositioning of holds and introducing CDAs.

 

·                    The number of holds has been increased from 2 to 3 which will require an extension of the current controlled airspace to the north to ensure sufficient separation for the new holds. Both P-RNAV and conventional routes have to be provided.

 

·                    The following issues were raised in the GA forum:

 

o       The potential to push the holds out over the North Sea to reduce the size of new protective areas required by the overland holds, which would otherwise impede GA and Glider operations. NATS undertook to review the minimas but not the hold positions, since the North Sea would be too far from the airports.

 

o       The NATS proposal had not taken into account the potential release of ‘old’ airspace back to the VFR GA community which results from the introduction of new Nav systems and improved CAT aircraft performance. NATS undertook to review this issue.

 

o       NATS would review the reclassification of airspace from ‘A’ to ‘C’.

 

o       Due to the complexity of the proposal and serious impact on the GA community, the GA reps requested consideration for an extension of the consultation deadline from May 2008 to September 2008.

 

 

·                    The following issues were raised in the Airline and Airport forum:

 

o       Airport procedures affected will be Stansted N and SW departures, London City arrivals and N&E departures, all Northolt departures, Heathrow N&NE departures, Cambridge arrivals and a small number of Mildenhall departures.

 

o       The overall aim was to relieve current choke points – LOREL ATC, Essex Radar, Brookmans Park, NW departure ATC sectors. It will also address the current log jam between LTMA departures and Luton/Stansted arrivals.

 

o       The proposal does take into consideration a 2nd runway at Stansted but does not include a 3rd runway at Heathrow – this would require a major revision to the proposal.

 

o       Delays in the implementation target for the proposals caused by controller training requirements were addressed. The target dat for implementation of the proposal, assuming it is accepted, is Sep/Oct 2009.

 

o       The overall aim of the proposal is to go more procedural with less controller inputs.

 

·                    NATS NATMAC Briefing Notes

 

 

RICH JONES

CHIEF EXEC

UKFSC