The strategic partnership to support new airspace user integration across the UK.
London, UK & Geneva, Switzerland: NATS Services, the commercial arm of the UK’s leading ANSP and Altitude Angel, a global leader in unified traffic management (UTM) and creators of the 165 mile UK drone superhighway, have chosen the first day of Airspace World Expo in Geneva to announce a strategic commercial partnership which will revolutionise the way the sky is managed for new airspace users.
The combination of Altitude Angel’s GuardianUTM suite of technologies and NATS Services’ leading airspace management expertise will enable competitive and innovative services to integrate new airspace users, while maintaining safe operations for its existing commercial aviation customers.
This deal will also see GuardianUTM Flight Approval Services being deployed at some NATS-controlled airports later in 2024, allowing for digitally managed UTM flight requests and approvals and enhanced situational awareness.
The partnership will also accelerate Altitude Angel’s roll-out of its transformative ARROW technology, which when fused with its GuardianUTM platform, detects and identifies all airspace users, enabling drones to fly BVLOS and share the airspace with crewed aviation safely and securely.
On the strategic partnership, Guy Adams, Managing Director of NATS Services, said: “Supporting the development of New Airspace Users through airspace integration and the provision of new services is one of our strategic priorities. This partnership with Altitude Angel is a milestone in UK aviation, bringing together the technology, operational expertise and innovation that will allow us to further support the industry.
“The combination of Altitude Angel’s UTM technologies and NATS’ deep understanding of air traffic and airspace management will allow us to further embrace the integration of this new generation of airspace users, while also continuing to deliver the very highest standards of safety and efficiency.”
Richard Parker, Altitude Angel, CEO and founder, added: "Through this alliance, NATS and Altitude Angel bring together the unparalleled strength of air traffic control expertise with the world leading innovation of UTM.
“This partnership brings together in-depth knowledge, real-world experience, and, most importantly, a shared vision for a future where the skies are not just open but interconnected, where traditional and emerging aviation seamlessly coexist. Together, we will create an airspace which reflects the harmony of collaboration and the promise of a safer, more sustainable aviation future for all. We are pleased our leadership and innovation has been recognised by NATS as important to not only its future, but to the future of UK airspace.”
ENDS
For more information, please contact:
Stephen Farmer, Altitude Angel, Head of Corporate Communications & PR
stephen@altitudeangel.com.
About NATS
NATS is the UK’s principal air navigation services provider and is split into two main businesses, which provide two distinct services:
NATS (En Route) plc (NERL) — the regulated business, which provides air traffic management services to aircraft within UK airspace and over the eastern part of the North Atlantic; and
NATS (Services) Ltd (NSL) — the unregulated business, which provides air traffic control services at many of the UK’s major airports (15 civil and 7 military airfields) and other airports overseas.
NATS provides UTM, aerodrome, data, engineering, capacity, efficiency and environmental performance solutions to customers worldwide, including airports, airlines, air traffic service providers and governments.
About Altitude Angel
Altitude Angel is an award-winning provider of UTM (Unified Traffic Management) software, enabling those planning to operate, or develop UTM/U-Space solutions, to quickly integrate robust data and services with minimum effort. Its technologies include Common Information Service (CIS) UTM Service Provider (USSP) and UTM Supplemental Data Services Provider (SDSP) capabilities, combined on a central platform which is connected to hundreds of thousands of drone pilots worldwide.
Today, Altitude Angel’s market-defining technology is providing a critical, enabling service on which the future of UTM will be built across the globe. Altitude Angel is leading a consortium of businesses to build and develop 165 miles (265km) of ‘drone superhighways’ connecting airspace above Reading, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Coventry, and Rugby over the next two years. The Skyway superhighway network, enabled using Altitude Angel’s patented ARROW technology, will unlock the huge potential offered by unmanned aerial vehicles and be a catalyst to enable growth in the urban air mobility industry.
Altitude Angel’s first party solutions also power some of the world’s leading ANSPs, aviation authorities and Enterprises, including LVNL (Netherlands) and Avinor (Norway), empowering them with new capabilities to safely manage and integrate drone traffic into national operations.
By unlocking the potential of drones and helping national aviation authorities, ANSPs, developers and enterprise organisations, Altitude Angel is establishing new services to support the growth in the drone industry.
Altitude Angel was founded by Richard Parker in 2014 and is headquartered in Reading, UK.
Altitude Angel’s developer platform is open and available to all at https://developers.altitudeangel.com.
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