UK CAA to increase oversight of NATS following service allegations

UK CAA reported (03-Aug-2017) results of an investigation regarding NATS' En Route subsidiary, NERL, after service related allegations from Ryanair and London Stansted Airport. The entities suggested NERL "failed to meet demand for services to airlines by failing to provide adequate resources to manage the performance in the London Terminal Manoeuvring Area (LTMA) and had discriminated against traffic landing at London Stansted Airport". UK CAA confirmed no compliance breach was found in the investigation, however conceded delays in the London Approach Service increased in 2016 "as a result of a lower resilience within the staffing of that service, put simply, there were too few operational staff available". UK CAA stated NERL "made significant cuts to its operational staffing in the run up to the current regulatory period... Second, NERL was unable to implement a number of initiatives that it had identified to reduce the number of operational controllers it required". UK CAA listed the following areas for improvement:

• Working to improve operational resilience;
• Better contingency planning.

UK CAA also plans to "increase our own oversight of NERL to address resilience issues". [more - original PR]