When the government bail out NATS as they are not making enough profit, all of us who pay any form of tax pay for it.
Jetstream Rider - NATS reported a pre-tax profit of £1.8m in 2004 and for FY 2004/05 it reported its first significant pre-tax profit of £69m. Sorry, but HMG doesn't "bale out" NATS - the Airports side of the business derives its income from fixed-price contracts with various airports or from direct charging of aircraft operators using the airport(s) whilst the En-route part derives its income from route charges.
The annexation of communal property (airspace), to the benefit of commercial (airline) interests is not "fair".
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Controlled airspace is imposed upon those who fly VFR, by our rulers, for the benefit of IFR CAT
In fact, controlled airspace (CAS) is established to provide enhanced safety for the travelling public. It can also improve the safety of all flights, IFR and VFR. It's got nothing whatsoever to do with commercial (airline) interests or IFR CAT - Brize Norton & Lyneham for example, both have Class 'D' CAS and there are few if any, commercial airline flights operating at these locations.
...self serving public servants trying to justify increased taxes are about.
Sorry, but you're years out-of-date OVC200. The only controllers in the UK who remain 'civil servants' are those working in the CI and the IoM, at Shoreham (where they're still employed directly by the local council) or who are employed directly by the CAA - and it's not the CAA that seeks to establish CAS but rather, the airports and/or ATC companies.
Reckon I pay plenty for the ATC services I receive when flying VFR. All the UK tax - fuel tax and VAT on the avgas and income tax - should more than cover it.
Sorry DGG but like your road fund licence and the VAT on petrol where not much if any gets spent on the road infrastructure, none of the payments to which you refer find their way back to the ATC companies because as you probably know, G Brown and his experts won't countenance the hypothecation of taxes.
The issue of controlled airspace vs. uncontrolled airspace is a controversial and emotive subject for discussion - so it helps to get all the facts right first!
