Richard Everitt made the following statement:
"NATS remains committed to the NPC, despite the worsening economic climate.
"In our view, the NPC provides the best opportunity to develop our future systems and, under my direction, the project team is currently re-working the business case for the new centre to reflect this approach.
"The business case has to be robust and take account of the current economic climate, the worst for decades, particularly for our airline customers and particularly for the transatlantic market which has traditionally provided over 40 per cent of NATS' revenue. There is no sign of improvement this year and the situation will deteriorate further should there be a conflict in the Middle East.
Notwithstanding the challenge this presents, NATS is currently evaluating various ATC systems to establish the best system for NPC. This is by far the largest part of the Scotland project, which will create the 5th biggest of Europe's 65 ATC centres and certainly the most advanced."
Probably NATS needs to be committed!
