When push comes to shove, any attempt to sell off the airports business would smack of gross incompetence with regards to what NATS as a company is trying to achieve.
Barron likes to claim we are an industry leader... well, we may or may not be; what with the way we operate at the coalface coupled with the innovative groundbreaking things our support guys are doing (Mode S etc etc), we are comparable with the best.
However, to either stay or become the industry leader we need the expertise gained from having people in the company doing the hands on job i.e. we need airport, terminal and en-route controllers working in the company, controlling on a day to day basis to ensure that what the wizards in the darkened rooms are developing with regards to future ATC systems etc are salient and worthwhile.
In the same regard, as an industry leader, we need to be able to take someone off the street and train them with a high degree of success to become an ATCO. If we cannot train our own staff, we can never claim to be an industry leader. Unfortunately, our training success at the moment is appalling, taken from initial recruitment to validation. Despite our inability to train, we are trying to sell our training services to foreign agencies..... we even have a 'head of overseas training'.... pity it is filled by the person who oversaw the current fiasco which is the college.
It must by now be increasingly obvious to anyone that all Barron is interested in is making NATS a profitable company, despite the 'not for profit' way we are supposed to work.
As far as his management style is concerned in that respect, he is doing a good job - selling off assets, getting rid of (in the future), less profitable ventures.
As far as his management style is concerned regarding making NATS the 'industry leader', he is doing a terrible job. The way things stand, making large profits does not sit with making the company the best at what it does. Unfortunately, despite any protestations to the contrary, all that Barron and his cronies (and the Governement) are concerned about, is turning a profit.