Originally Posted by
lemonhead
The UK is one of the few countries that has chosen for a competitve market for terminal air traffic control and I think the detrimental effects of that on quality of service and working conditions are very apparent, not just at Gatwick.
The Gatwick contract is tower only and doesn't include terminal control; that is still done by NATS from Swanwick.
Even the USA has some private companies (eg Barton ATC Inc which is owned by Serco) which supply non FAA employed controllers for tower only contracts.