In 1989, more than 29 million passengers were flown across the North Atlantic Ocean in 167 000 scheduled and non-scheduled flights. At peak times during the Summer months, a trans-Atlantic flight was crossing the Shanwick Oceanic Control boundary every minute and more than 200 flights were reporting between 10 and 50 degrees West. Traffic counts exceeded 750 flights a day.

The following account describes the more recent improvements to North Atlantic air traffic control, the early introduction of computers to the task, with their on-line data interchange between Oceanic Control Centres and the current computer supported services provided by the Shanwick and Gander Oceanic Area Control Centres.