News
Made-in-Canada technology now used by British Air Traffic Controllers

Sept. 9, 2008, Ottawa, Ont. – NATS, the air navigation service provider
in the U.K. has opted to use a system developed by NAV CANADA to keep track of
critical flight data at its Swanwick Air Traffic Control Centre. The Swanwick
Centre controls 200,000 square miles of airspace above England and Wales and
handles some two million flights per year.

The Code Callsign Distribution System Replacement (CCDS-R) matches the
"Squawk" code transmitted by aircraft with their filed flight plan which makes
it much easier for Air Traffic Controllers to positively identify an aircraft
on their radar display.
NAV CANADA developed a modernized system with multiple interfaces based
on NAV CANADA's EXCDS technology and through the Company's considerable
experience at implementing air traffic management systems.

Services provided by NAV CANADA include software development, system
installation, operational and maintenance training, and continuing hardware
and software maintenance during system operation.
"The system installed at the Swanwick Air Traffic Control Centre is
another example of the relationship between NATS and NAV CANADA which has been
ongoing for many years," said John Crichton, NAV CANADA's president and CEO.
"NATS is an important customer and valued partner in the provision of Air
Navigation Services."
CCDS-R provides a robust technology based on industry standard components
and protocols to handle the many interfaces required for NATS' system.
"The CCDS-R project has been executed by NATS and NAV CANADA to a
progressive schedule allowing it to be deployed before the busy 2008 summer
traffic period. The successful development and deployment of this critical
product has been largely due to the strong relationships established at all
levels between our two organisations." said Jonathan Combe, Programme Manager.
"The system has proved exceptionally stable in operation".

Other collaborative work with NATS over the last decade has involved the
successful adaptation of oceanic air traffic control technology first
developed in Gander, Newfoundland, for the Western North Atlantic. The NAV
CANADA technology forms the heart of the new Shanwick Automated Air Traffic
System (SAATS) used by NATS controllers for the management of air traffic in
the Eastern North Atlantic.
The two companies also worked together to implement a NATS version of the
NAV CANADA "paperless electronic flight data strips" technology for air
traffic control towers in the UK.

This allows for the management of electronic
flight data online using touch-sensitive display screens as opposed to the
traditional method of using paper strips.
The flight data system called EFPS, is based on a NAV CANADA system and
is currently in use at Stansted, Gatwick, Luton and Heathrow airports