Global air travel is predicted to more than double by 2050, threatening to exceed the capacity of air traffic control officers (atcos) to oversee our skies safely.
One solution would be to recruit more controllers – but that’s not as easy as it sounds. Airspace in the UK and elsewhere is broken up into geographically and altitude-bounded sectors – with each sector normally the responsibility of one atco (the tactical controller) at any time. So, increasing the number of controllers to deal with a greater concentration of aircraft could require a major redesign of UK airspace.
