Heathrow quite obviously should be one of the highest payed ATCO jobs in the UK.
However it is unrealistic to expect salaries to be decided primarily by the traffic a unit works.Otherwise a unit working 1000 a day on £60000 means a unit working a 100 a day are only going to get £6000 (taking it to the extreme i know) and that would mean HIAL would not get anybody. So in reality a lot of units have to offer salaries not too far behind the big airports in order to attract people and keep staff , regardless of the amount of traffic worked , but that is market forces. When people make a choice to work at unit it is not just down to money. Quality of life , family connections and general lifestyle choice etc. come into it. (contary to the old belief by some ,that if you work at non NATS unit, its because you could not make the grade at NATS.)
