UK air traffic service provider NATS has signed a Memorandum of Co-operation with Dubai-based airline flydubai.

The deal will allow the two organisations to explore how their core capabilities can be utilised to deliver significant benefits to the airline’s business.

The initial focus of the co-operation will examine how NATS can use its extensive operations and global air traffic management knowledge to benefit current and future flydubai operations.

The agreement will aim to deliver measurable improvements in the safety, capacity and efficiency of flydubai’s flights, in addition to enhancing the airline’s productivity, contingency and growth capabilities, which are part of flydubai’s seven focal pillars of programme improvement.

Richard Deakin, NATS chief executive, said: “This MoC represents a significant opportunity for NATS to demonstrate the tangible benefits air traffic management can have on an airline customer’s operation.

“The co-operation will involve a series of customer-led propositions which support flydubai’s significant growth ambitions.”

The latest member to join NATS’ Middle East operations is Ben Kiff, proposition development lead for NATS Middle East activities.

Kiff commented: “This is one of a number of regional activities between NATS and an airline and it is exciting to be developing this specific proposition in collaboration with flydubai.

“The next few months will see NATS focus on bringing extensive Procedure Design experience forward in collaboration with members of the Aeronautical Services team at flydubai to deliver improvements to specific procedures in consultation with the relevant ANSPs and Civil Aviation Authorities.” 

NATS is currently working on projects in Qatar, Kuwait and Oman, and has previously worked with Bahrain and Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai to support the safety, efficiency and environmental performance of its airspace.

NATS successfully completed work on the Qatar Airspace Design and Implementation project for Hamad International Airport, which officially started commercial operations last month with the arrival of a flydubai flight.

Commenting on the new MoC, James Vial, flydubai’s senior vice president flight operations, said: “flydubai is keen to tap into the extensive experience NATS brings from its previous projects and existing services.

“We have seen and continue to see significant growth at a diverse range of destinations where support and assistance from an entity like NATS can be of huge benefit to both the airline and, importantly, local ANSPs and authorities.”

In the UK, NATS guides around two million aircraft through some of the busiest and most complex airspace anywhere in the world.

Increasingly, its expertise is in demand from other countries, with NATS also working in Asia, the United States and the Far East.