If there is a strike how long would NATS remain solvent before it goes into Aviation Administration
Legal Status and Ownership
NATS Holdings Ltd is the holding company for NATS Group. It owns NATS Ltd, which in turn owns two operating subsidiaries: NATS (En-Route) plc (NERL) and NATS (Services) Ltd (NSL). The Airline Group Ltd, a consortium of seven airlines, has the majority of voting rights and 41.9% of the shares of NATS Holdings Ltd.
The Secretary of State for Transport owns 48.9%, BAA plc 4.2%; and NATS Employee Sharetrust Ltd 5%.
The Government is the major shareholder (48.9%) and NATS cannot go into aviation administration. There is a good reason why they still part own it... because NATS is essential to the UK both economically and from a safety aspect, thus NATS will not be allowed to go into administration -even if it could.
There is a an underlying trend now and a wish for re-Nationalistion of industries (Northern Rock and now as I type !
Bradford and Bingley) which previously were in the private sector, and since NATS is only 51.1% private
dont rule out going full circle to where we were before.
If I recall things were much better for the staff then.
In the current
USA economic climate anything could happen, especially when there is a dramatic downturn in the aviation industry (trans-Atlantic especially, as this is NATS biggest earner) which always was and always will be volatile, nothing new here.