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UK air traffic management’s leading provider NATS, has successfully installed an essential gateway between the EUROCONTROL Integrated Flight Plan Processing System (IFPS) and their National Airspace System (NAS) thanks to technology from Frequentis Comsoft.

NATS, safely and efficiently, handles over two million flights per year. The lifecycle of NATS current Flight Plan Reception Suite Automation (FPRSA) system was coming to an end, so a suitable interim replacement was needed in order to continue its reliable and efficient service, until its Deploying SESAR programme takes full effect.

“NATS chose Frequentis Comsoft to provide this essential gateway based on our good past experience, coupled with our technical team’s expert assessment of the suitability of their proven technology," said Tim Bullock, Director Supply Chain NATS. "Our teams worked successfully together to ensure that the solution was installed in an efficient and timely manner with minimal disruption, ensuring it will meet our goals for greater productivity, whilst continuing to ensure we provide a safe and highly resilient air traffic management service for our customers.”

NATS has been operating AIDA-NG in the biggest message handling environment in Europe, switching around 1,400,000 messages per day. The system has been operational since 2006 (last upgraded in 2014) and has worked for more than the past decade with utmost reliability, with unmatched field-proven overall availability of 99,999998% to date.

“The basis for the new FPRSA system is Frequentis Comsoft’s market-leading message handling product AIDA-NG, used by NATS since 2006, as the biggest international AFTN/AMHS Message switch (AMS-UK) in the EUR/NAT region. We are pleased to be working with long term customer NATS, supporting them in their goals for a reliable and efficient service.” said Uwe Kurpat, MHS Business Unit Manager, Frequentis Comsoft.

BlueSky Business Aviation News | 11th October 2018 | Issue #482