Originally Posted by
JimBall
I just find it unsettling that the ATC for such a busy and profitable piece of airspace can find itself under-resourced at short notice - to such an extent that it has to stop a service.
And the answer you received was how do you cover for things like short notice sickness? Its not realistic to roster additional cover 'just in case' only to find you have surplus (valuable and expensive) resource sitting around twiddling thumbs for the entire shift.
And let's not delude ourselves that the £600m paid by NATS was the true value of our national airspace and the infrastructure that supported it at the time. Like any other privatised entity, NATS had to be at an attractive price.
No it didn't have to be an attractive price. The government set the price, it wasn't out for bidding. The government told NATS how much it had to pay. I suppose it could be argued that, like Qinetiq, the price was unrealistically low. However if the government had been going through the privatisation process at the time of 9/11 I suspect the price NATS had to stump up would have been quite considerably lower!
As for "selling a free service to a third party" - meet me anytime to discuss that suggestion! Do you have any idea how much it costs to run a private aviation business?
No one is twisting your arm to run your private business!
How many "British" airlines pay UK tax ? How many airline multi-millionaires live here year round and don't pay as much tax as the cleaner in your office ?
Thats not relevant to your discussion as the service you are expecting to be provided free, gratis and for nothing isn't paid for by the UK taxpayer. Its paid for by NATS customers i.e. the airlines who pay route charges.
And best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.
And to you and yours
BD