Concorde NAT Tracks

Concorde stopped flying in 2003, but its North Atlantic tracks are still part of our procedures. Concorde add-ons are popular on VATSIM, and we still handle supersonic flights the way the real controllers did.

What are the Concorde tracks?

• There are four fixed, legacy tracks: NAT SM, NAT SN, NAT SO and NAT SP. Unlike the daily NAT tracks, they do not change from day to day, so they are always available and are not published in a daily message.
• Concorde flew too high and too fast to share the daily tracks. It cruise-climbed from about FL470 to FL600 at roughly Mach 2, so these tracks are kept apart from other traffic, which stays at or below FL430.
• SM is for westbound flights only, SN is for eastbound flights only, SO is an overflow track used as coordinated by ATC, and SP is a two-way route to the Caribbean.
• The points are on intermediate latitudes (degrees and minutes), so each point is named after its track and longitude, for example SM20W is on Track SM at 20 West.
• Concorde does not need a Mach number in its oceanic clearance, as it flies a standard speed schedule.

Controllers can find the full rules in Annex B of the Gander Oceanic SOPs. Pilots do not need a daily track message: request your oceanic clearance as normal and ask for the track you want.

Blue = westbound (SM), red = eastbound (SN), purple = either direction as coordinated (SO, SP).

Track	Points	Use	Levels

For more information about Concorde tracks, check out this page: Heritage Concorde: air traffic control of Concorde.

Special thank you to Christian Kovanen 1379372 for the boundaries and fixes.