Case Study: NATS reduces CO2 emissions and speeds air traffic analytics with Microsoft Azure and SQL Server

Harnessing flight data to transform UK airspace with SQL Server and Azure

NATS, the UK's leading air traffic control provider, faced the challenge of efficiently analyzing over 15 terabytes of complex flight data to improve efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions. Their on-premises systems were overwhelmed, causing analysts to spend 80% of their time just manipulating data. They needed a powerful and scalable solution to process years of information to gain actionable insights and meet their environmental goals, turning to Microsoft for a solution.

Microsoft implemented a cloud-based data warehouse using SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines. This solution processed four years of data in less than a month, enabling NATS to cut analysis time for some tasks from 20 days to just 5 minutes. The insights gained directly contributed to NATS exceeding its target by achieving a 4.3% reduction in CO2 emissions, saving over one million tonnes, and significantly improving strategic decision-making for air traffic management.

NATS

Gavin Walker

Head of Information Solutions