BT in £32m air traffic control deal

BT has landed a £32m, nine-year contract from National Air Traffic Services (NATS) for the provision of virtual private network (VPN) technology that will link its radar, communications and air traffic control sites.

Known as DaVinci - standing for Data and Voice Integrated NATS Communications Infrastructure - the system is intended to pay for itself within its nine-year life span.

DaVinci replaces what NATS used in the past, supplied by both BT and Cable and Wireless. It is also good news for Nortel, which will act as a BT preferred supplier, supplying its Passport switches.

The deal has been made public after a two-year development project that saw BT's and another system - thought to have been from Telindus - run side by side.

NATS has emphasised that communications is at the heart of what it does, with DaVinci ranking only behind radar replacement and flight data processing as a technically complex project. It expects payback on its latest investment within five years, it said.

Simon Patten, general manager of BT Defence, said: "This is a significant win, not just in terms of BT Defence but the whole of BT. NATS are a long term customer and very important to us."

As a public private partnership, NATS - co-owned by seven UK airlines, the government, BAA and an employee trust - is embarking on a 10-year modernisation programme costing £1bn.

In June, bad publicity - not alien to air traffic control IT projects - came NATS' way when computer failure meant a day of grounded or disrupted flights in and around the UK.

NATS has four main control centres and provides air traffic control, radar and radio stations for 14 airports. DaVinci will also cover a new contingency facility being built at Whitely in Hampshire.