And to the best of my recollection National Air Traffic Services, the pre privatisation government agency as was, was consistently profit making and a net contributor to the public purse so your allegations of a "taxpayer funded pension pot" is very wide of the mark.
That's in stark contrast BTW to all the other ANSPs in Europe. The French, Italian, even the German ANSP have pension funds that are paid for by their governments which hardly makes for a level playing field when comparing NATS with their peers.