Zooker,
I agree, it is worrying and I think the rot has set in. Too busy trying to conquer the world and trumpeting the opening of new offices around the World, whilst taking our eye off the ball in the UK.
Birmingham are fairly often calling TC to ask us to reduce the inbound flow due to lack of staff... one wonders if Gatwick will be the same...
I know Gatwick wanted to up their game regarding number of movements this year... looking at 60+ per hour throughout the day. This was all dependant on information sharing systems and technology developed by NATS. Obviously they will not get access to this now unless they pay, which will in turn make the DFS contract more expensive than the headline figure that they have tendered, unless of course Gatwick owners decide they do not want more movements per hour, which I doubt.