A silver bullet to help defeat one of aviation’s greatest challenges

Aviation worldwide faces a major battle – how to train enough air traffic controllers. A single apprentice doesn’t sound like much, but it signals a solution - and it was made in Gloucestershire.

Dear Readers,

Welcome to Thursday’s edition of The Railes Journal.

It’s a one-story edition today; one of those stories that gets pushed out there, but probably doesn’t really get put into context it deserves and disappears with little trace when it actually speaks volumes for those involved, about Gloucestershire and what it is achieving.

Which is where Raikes comes into its own.

It’s a story about aviation and a major challenge facing the sector worldwide. The scale of that sector is simply huge, of course. In 2023 the UK-based airlines alone were estimated to contribute £24 billion to our economy and more than one million jobs. But it’s an industry whose growth is hampered by a shortage of air traffic controllers.

As anyone who has visited the Jet Age Museum at Staverton will tell you, Gloucestershire has a rich aviation history and heritage, and it continues to be at the forefront of that sector today through its manufacturing and engineering - even the development of hydrogen-electric…