Originally Posted by
escaped.atco
Ultimately NATS is now a commercial business and as such has to return a profit to the shareholders. If your customers have decreased their own business dramatically and as a result you are struggling to raise revenue then redundancies and cutbacks are inevitable. The airlines that are making massive changes at present are a pertinent example and I feel desperately sorry for those affected.
Of course it’s not just the airlines that are the customers and NATS also has a requirement through its license to keep airspace open regardless of the number of users.
A few examples could be police or medivac helicopters, survey flights, military, the royal family and government ministers.
Which means you need a minimum number of “bums on seats” regardless of the number of flights.
If flights reduce by 80% you cannot simply reduce the number of controllers by same without closing vital airspace and breaching the company’s operating license.
Which is why, as escaped ATCO said, this vital piece of national infrastructure should not be run as a for profit, commercial company.