HC Deb 29 October 2001 vol 373 c477W
Sandra Osborne

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (1) if it is his policy that National Air Traffic Services operated at Manchester will be moved to Atlantic House, Prestwick; [9440]

(2) if he will list the options being considered by National Air Traffic Services to rationalise its functions throughout the United Kingdom; [9438]

(3) if the Civil Aviation Radar Installation Service will be moved from Prestwick to Gatwick Airport as part of the engineering review of National Air Traffic Services. [9439]

Mr. Jamieson

As part of its long term investment plan, NATS intends progressively to move to a two-centre strategy with modern facilities at Swanwick in Hampshire and Prestwick in Ayrshire. As part of that strategy, the existing area control centres at West Drayton and Manchester will close in the latter part of this decade. The current plan is that the majority of the task undertaken by Manchester will be moved to Prestwick, with the remainder moving to Swanwick. These plans are under detailed evaluation to find the optimum division of operational tasks between Swanwick and Prestwick.