£18,27 Million would give all NATS staff a 9% payrise
Given that the total staff costs for 2007/08 were £409m and that subsequent head count reduction probably just about compensates for the 2008 pay settlement, I think that 4.5% would be a bit closer (pension and social security costs rise pro-rata with salaries)!
By the way, it appears that some volume reduction shared risk factor has kicked in on the en-route unit charge - my calculations indicate that the 2009 sterling unit charge rate has gone up by about 8.5% - would anyone like to check this?
Things seem to be looking up - service units for March were only 10.8% down on last year, compared to February's 14.0% (although Feb 2008 had an extra day?).