Nottingham East Midlands Airport (NEMA) has become the first airport in Europe to allow the public to watch the movement of flights and air traffic patterns via its website www.nottinghamema.com  

The facility called ‘WebTrak’ provides detailed information about aircraft that have landed or taken off from NEMA and replays the track the aircraft has flown. Flight information is updated daily and is displayed 24 hours in arrears to maintain aviation security.

The Airport has teamed up with industry experts Lochard to provide the facility which uses data sourced from the National Air Traffic Services radar. This includes all aircraft operations within a 30 mile radius of the Airport, with the exception of aircraft above 15,000 feet and some light aircraft. Other aircraft operating within the Airport’s airspace that did not arrive or depart NEMA will also be displayed but without the detailed information provided for Airport-related aircraft.

Until now, information about specific aircraft associated with the Airport could only be obtained by written request. By visiting the Airport’s website, the public can now interrogate the system for themselves to obtain information such as the aircraft’s track, altitude, airline and aircraft type.

Penny Coates, NEMA Managing Director said, “When we began consulting on our Draft Master Plan in February, we pledged to introduce a system on-line whereby members of the public, with an interest in movements of aircraft to and from the Airport could monitor this for themselves. Our environment team have worked closely with the experts at Lochard to develop the facility and we’re delighted to be leading the way in Europe with this cutting-edge technology”.

She added, “We take our commitment to the environment and our local communities extremely seriously and have spent over £2 million in environmental initiatives over the last ten years to reduce the impact of our operations. We were also the first UK airport to receive ISO14001 accreditation for environmental management. We want to be as transparent about our operations as possible and WebTrak gives residents living in the vicinity of the Airport a much clearer picture about what is happening in the skies above them”.

Since its foundation in 1991, market leader Lochard has built the world’s foremost airport noise monitoring and flight track management solutions. They provide a complete suite of hardware and software products and have the most integrated airport noise management installations worldwide. Lochard’s experience extends to over 130 airport customers worldwide.

Phil Stollery, Vice President of Lochard in Europe said, “We are delighted to be helping Nottingham East Midlands Airport improve accessibility to flight information for the local communities. WebTrak has been deployed at a number of airports in the United States where it has been received very well. The most successful airport noise management programmes utilise a balanced approach. Coupled with the airport’s Noise and Track Monitoring system helping to reduce the noise impact, WebTrak achieves this balanced approach building awareness and understanding about the airport’s operations within the community.”
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