United Kingdom air traffic controllers warn of over-crowded skies

The air traffic controllers are expecting to handle more than 770,000 flights during the course of the summer, an increase by 40,000 from a year ago.

Today is expected to be the busiest day in history for Britain's skies - with 8,800 planes to be handled by air traffic controllers over the next 24 hours.

Officials say the number of flights should break the record of 8,732 flights on May 23, 2008 unless foul weather forces a number of cancellations.

However, the UK's National Air Traffic Control Service has warned that this increase is stretching air traffic controllers and United Kingdom skies to the limit.

In response to the numerous challenges ahead, the government has launched a new initiative soliciting the public's ideas for how to improve the UK's aviation industry.

The government dictates when and where planes can fly under a system of routes.

"We are approaching the limit of what the skies can handle with the airspace we have in place".

Earlier this year, the government consulted on plans to update airspace change policy and is now reviewing the feedback.

"We will take that stable guidance when it comes out and use that to change the airspace and modernise it for the next century", he said.

Local communities "are very obviously concerned" about the increase in air traffic, "but actually modernising [airspace] means we can keep aircraft higher for longer", Nats chief executive Martin Rolfe told the BBC.

Plans to expand several British airports are already under way.

Also under consideration are extra measures to deal with the terror threat, including funding for better airport security in foreign countries that have weaker systems.

NATS is now spending in excess of £600m on new technology to help boost capacity - including an advanced new digital control system at London City Airport - but argues that investment must be accompanied by a redesign of the UK's network of flight paths and air routes, changes that will require government support. "It will support jobs and economic growth across the whole of the United Kingdom".

On Friday, work started at Manchester airport as part of a £1-billion (R16.8-billion) programme to double the size of its Terminal 2.

The investment was described by the chief executive of Manchester Airports Group, Charlie Cornish, as "a significant moment" which demonstrated "the confidence that we have in the long-term future of both the North and the United Kingdom economy".