NATS & Ryanair

[Buster the Bear]

Ryanair seeks 'urgent' meeting with UK govt on NATS

Ryanair Holdings PLC, the Dublin-based low cost airline, said it is seeking a meeting with Transport Secretary Alistair Darling as a matter of urgency to discuss how to address the "continuing failure" of the UK National Air Traffic Services (NATS).

The airline said NATS failed to respond to a series of proposals it submitted in July on behalf of its 15 million passengers.

Ryanair wants a system introduced whereby passengers whose flights are cancelled as a direct result of NATS failure would receive direct compensation in the form of ticket refunds from NATS.

The airline also wants NATS to commit to achieving levels of charges in line with the European average within the next 10 years.

It claims NATS charges are currently 57% above the European average while NATS provides the least efficient service in Europe.

"Ryanair now calls for urgent intervention by the Department of Transport to restore consumer confidence in the efficiency of the UK Air Traffic Control system," it said.

[radar707]

Perhaps Ryanair could look at the way it compensates it's passengers when things go wrong and it's their fault!!!

[Buster the Bear]

I am totally sure, that when Ryanair gets a NATS rebate due to the worst delays and ATC system in Europe, Ryanair will then compensate thier customers directly!

Now if I was an ATCO, and reading the news post above, I would feel the need to get rather upset. This smacks of a hate campaign not only against PPP, NATS and the Labour government, but also inefficient NATS ATCO's! All in the name of publicity for MOL and Ryanair!

So if a Ryanair and another airline are equi-distant, who will be first chaps?

[AffirmBrest]

passengers whose flights are cancelled as a direct result of NATS failure

Isn't it up to the Airline to cancel a flight or otherwise, not the Air Traffic Service? Don't most other airlines already make arrangements in those circumstances?

And what happens when french ATC go on strike? Will FR's proposed policy of recovering compensation for (ahem) passengers apply then? I would LOVE to see O'Leary (try to) get money out of the French government, or any other European ATS.

Or is this just the usual technically-illiterate effort to get in the newspapers and the short-term memory of the great unwashed? Shurely not... :rolleyes:

Bunch of Arse(oles)

[torpids]

Maybe its "the sh** you have got" or even the fine NATS management that the Ryanair proposals addressed. Sensitive little flowers aren't we to take it personally without knowing the detail.
Oh, and its about to get even more expensive.

Observer Sunday 6th October.

A desperately needed lifeline has been thrown to the cash-strapped National Air Traffic Services by a Civil Aviation Authority decision to let it raise the fees it charges to airlines.
The move - a U-turn by the authority - will anger the aviation industry, however. Britain already has the highest air traffic control fees in the world and further increases, expected to be announced next week, will infuriate airline executives as consumer confidence and business travel declines.

The rises, totalling tens of millions of pounds, are likely to be passed on to travellers, which will hurt the low cost carriers in particular.

The industry, which has suffered badly after the US terrorist bombings last year, is braced for further bad news if the US declares war against Iraq. But the CAA's U-turn will allow the Airline Group, the public-private partnership which owns Nats, to announce a new partner to the consortium. BAA, the airports operator, will now inject more than £70 million into the consortium.

The new settlement comes after intense pressure from the Airline Group companies, which include Virgin and British Airways, its bankers - Barclays Capital, Abbey National, Bank of America and the Halifax - and unions. They warned Nats could go bust if the CAA did not reverse its decision last May to reject the rises.

The Government too was desperate for the CAA to reverse its decision because it feared having to bail out the service with taxpayers' money. It has already provided a £30m handout last February as Labour's decision to partially sell off Nats backfired. Just seven months after it received £750m from the industry, the service faced financial meltdown.

The new fee structure is said to be complex. Previously Nats could raise charges by the inflation rate minus 2 per cent.

It is understood there will now be a price structure tied to air traffic numbers. The banks were desperate to hedge the risk of unforeseen calamities - a point that will be accommodated.

David Luxton, national secretary of Prospect, the air traffic controllers' union, welcomed the CAA's decision but said: 'We hope there won't be a fudged compromise - to appease the banks and the companies - which fails to lever in investment needed for modernisation and compromises safety.'

Nats was part-privatised, with 46 per cent sold to a consortium of UK airlines for more than £750m. The state still owns 49 per cent of Nats, and staff hold 5 per cent.

[tug3]

I seem to recall in the Autumn 2002 issue of 'Transmit', (GATCO member's mag), there was something about the European Commission examining whether ATC providers could be subjected to financial penalties for failing to provide appropriate levels of service. Don't have a copy to hand and http://www.gatco.org only has back issues for accessing on-line.

Anyone got a copy to confirm?

Rgds
T3

[terrain safe]

Following on from who owns what in NATS, where are the rest of our shares? We have only been given our allowance so far, where's the rest?

Come on we've worked for them lets have 'em.

[viaEGLL]

I cant remember any of the airlines moaning in the past when nats used to put back much of its profits that it was not allowed to keep to all those greedy airlines into keeping ATC route charges low:mad: :mad: :mad: but its amazing how the going gets tough ryannair gets more greedy:mad: :mad: Oh and i always put ryannair number 1 at the hold:p :p :p