Simulator Prepares ATC Recruits Before Reopening

⊲ BBC News ⊳ Doncaster Sheffield Airport is training new air traffic controllers on a computer simulator ahead of its planned reopening. At least 20 recruits, including nine trainees, are practising tower and radar skills on a system replicating the live airport environment, supported by staff acting as virtual pilots. Head of air traffic services Andy Hudson said the simulator lets instructors design exercises resembling real conditions. Trainee Liam Watts, a former Royal Navy controller, said repeated practice builds familiarity with traffic levels and phraseology. Passenger flights at Doncaster are expected to resume in 2028.
Liam Watts’s move from fourteen years in the Royal Navy to civil air traffic control shows how military skills can translate directly into airport operations.
⊲ Image – Mark Ansell/BBC ⊳
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