Articles by Brian Jackson

About Brian Jackson
Although retired a few years ago, I spent almost 45 years working in Air Traffic Control, mostly at Gatwick Airport. Seen it all from Dan Air, BCAL, Britannia and Laker to Easyjet, Norwegian, TUI and Ryanair. Seen all aspects of airport life including Emergency Services, Handling Agents, Airlines and Airport operators. A roller- coaster industry indeed!
The new digital tower control room at NATS Swanwick control centre for London City Airport is due to enter full operations service in 2019.
Features

Digital Air Traffic Control Towers

09/07/2020 5 minute read
Written by: Brian Jackson

So what exactly is a “Digital Air Traffic Control Tower”? Basically it is a manned Air Traffic Controller facility that may or may not be on the airport,. It will utilise cameras, radar, radio/telephonephone communication equipment and aircraft data to enable control of airport movements. It will in essence perform [read more]

NATS Swanwick ATC Centre
News

Tough times for Air Traffic Control

03/07/2020 < 1 minute read
Written by: Brian Jackson

As much as airlines have been hit by the Corona pandemic, the same can be said of Air Traffic Control (ATC). Income is mostly obtained from aircraft movements, it therefore follows when such movements are down so is the cash flow to ATC! This has been compounded in Europe by [read more]