New Prestwick air traffic control centre takes off
25.01.10
Nearly half of UK flights will be controlled from Scotland from today when Europe's biggest air traffic control centre enters full operational service. The new £180 million complex at Prestwick in Ayrshire replaces a 30-year-old adjacent building and also takes over from a control centre in Manchester that has closed.
The scheme, which has been in the pipeline for a decade, is expected to provide a significant economic boost to the west of Scotland economy. Air traffic control company Nats, which runs the centre, said the project had been completed on time and under budget.
The centre's 900 staff include 130 air traffic controllers who have transferred from Manchester, each of whom earns up to £91,000 a year. Manchester controllers handed over control of their airspace at 03:00 on Saturday, ending 35 years of operations there.
The three separate parts of the Prestwick complex collectively control more air space than any other European control centre. The Scottish area control centre will control nearly one million flights a year – 42 percent of the 2.2 million using UK airspace under air traffic control, and up from one third previously.
Prestwick's oceanic area control centre controls nearly 400,000 flights over the eastern half of the north Atlantic, from the Azores to near Iceland. The new building also houses an RAF air traffic control centre, responsible for military aircraft flying over Scotland and northern England, and all aircraft emergencies.
The move completes the halving of UK air traffic control centres, following the closure of the West Drayton centre near Heathrow three years ago. The other remaining centre is at Swanwick, near Southampton. The new Prestwick centre will be officially opened by the Princess Royal on February 5.
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