Mr 777
NATS are not affected by RPI in terms of what they charge and what they pay their staff, as the route charges are set out on a strict RPI minus formula. So no fingers were burnt as a result of the high RPI figure in SEP 07, as they take in more and pay out more. This of course does have a negative effect for the airlines as there costs increase more.
This is designed to gradually reduce the cost of chargeable units to the airlines, but as traffic generally increases, any reduction in unit cost should have little effect as the basic running costs of the company should remain much the same or even decrease as we reduce the number of centres in the UK and attempt to reduce existing costs (usually in the wrong areas!).
If traffic starts taking a significant downturn, then they/we will have a problem. This is however beyond our control!
Regards