Gatwick and air traffic control body Nats have declined to say whether the often weekly imposition of air traffic restrictions at the airport due to a shortage of air traffic controllers will end before next summer.
Disruption on Thursday last week (September 14) was due to “short notice staff absence”, according to Nats, which took over air traffic control (ATC) at Gatwick two years ago.
Gatwick and Nats acknowledge the shortfall in staff, with the issue being managed by reduced staffing “at quiet times and for short periods”.
A Gatwick spokesperson said: “New air traffic controllers have been recruited and others are due to start after completing their training, in line with the plan when Nats took over. The decision to appoint Nats was made with our airlines, and we remain fully confident in their ability to deliver.”
A spokesperson for Nats insisted: “Resilience has improved significantly since Nats took over air traffic control at the airport.”
But they added: “When Gatwick appointed us, all parties were clear it would not be a short-term fix. We can’t simply move controllers from other locations. They need to be trained specifically for Gatwick, to be certified to safely control aircraft at the world’s busiest single runway airport.
“Nats is working to a plan agreed with Gatwick to recruit and train controllers which will deliver further resilience ahead of summer 2024.”
Both Gatwick and Nats declined to comment further, saying: “It’s a private commercial contract.” But an aviation source pointed out: “This is totally separate from the wider UK airspace issues.” A second source acknowledged: “It has not been great over the last few weeks.”
Nats is a public-private partnership between the Airline Group, which holds 42%, and the government (49%), along with Nats’ staff (5%) and Heathrow (4%). A pensions fund, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), in turn holds a 49.9% stake in the Airline Group, which includes British Airways, easyJet, Lufthansa, Tui Airways and Virgin Atlantic.