NATS - What a surprise !!!

[PPRuNe Radar]

With acknowledgement to The Observer

[quote]
Taxpayer To Bail Out Air Traffic Control

Nick Mathiason
Sunday December 30, 2001
The Observer

The government looks set to bail out Britain's troubled air traffic control network less than six months after it was privatised.

Sources close to the National Air Traffic Service (Nats) have indicated that the Government will inject more than £30 million into the organisation, which controls the flightpaths of aeroplanes over UK skies.

An announcement is expected early in the new year and would be a severe embarrassment for Labour's much vaunted public-private partnership
initiative.

It was in July, amid bitter opposition, that a 46 per cent stake in Nats was sold to the Airline Group, a consortium of six carriers including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, for £750m. But the downturn in transatlantic air traffic blew a hole in optimistic Nats revenue projections. It is thought to be losing more than £50m in its first year, instead of making a predicted £60m profit.

In return for a cash injection, the Government may increase its 49 per cent stake in Nats to a majority interest, although this has not been finalised. The Government is also expected to rubber-stamp further job losses within the service. A Government official said: 'Talks with Nats and the Airline Group are ongoing.'

Iain Findlay, national co-ordinator at Prospect, the air traffic controllers' union, said: 'We welcome the fact that the Government can't just stand back and watch Nats fail. The Government should be a full partner within Nats.'

A Nats spokesman said he was unaware of any imminent Government statement. He did say that the proposed £60m control centre at Prestwick, Scotland was now on the back burner, with no new date for a go-ahead. 'But it will be built before the end of the decade,' he said.

A spokesman for the Airline Group said: 'We are still in the process of evaluating what exactly have been the effects of 11 September on our
business.'

<hr></blockquote>

Now, hands up everyone who can safely say 'We told you so !!!!' Ah, unanimous I see <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

[Cryolosophorous]

Errr...call me old fashioned, but get on the correct forum, eh?

[Flybywyre]

Errr...call me old fashioned, but isn't NATS still part of the ATC system, eh?

For those unable to look the same post is on the NATS forum.

[Loki]

Cor, blimey, that`s a surprise, nobody could possibly have seen that one coming!

[Red Four]

If the Government are going to do this, surely they should put a similar amount of funding into non-NATS units in the U.K., many of which would give their eye teeth for just some of the investment that has gone into NATS over the years, and are badly in need of new equipment.

Lets have a level playing field; the above move will just distort market forces.

[PPRuNe Radar]

Red Four

The areas you refer to are not covered by this announcement. The airport business, which is the competition you refer too, is a separate and totally transparent part of NATS. Their costs are 100% covered by the money they get from the airport authorities or owners. As this is on a contract basis, there is no fall in the level of money paid there.

The area which is being funded is the NATIONAL part of the system, the En Route division. This division is regulated by Government statute under the licence issued in the PPP.

All in the blurb which came out before the PPP happened, and well worth a read, but too late to protest about the flaws in the plan.

[bagpuss lives]

What a disgrace and a total shambles.

"Our Skies Are Not For Sale" indeed <img src="frown.gif" border="0">

And this is apalling "The Government is also expected to rubber-stamp further job losses within the service"...............

Good Lord - who's gonna' be next for the old heave ho <img src="confused.gif" border="0"> <img src="confused.gif" border="0">

This is sickening and apalling. I just wish I and many many of my colleagues had of done much much more to oppose PPP.

Looks like we're going to be shafted good and proper again - all thanks to Mr Two Jabs and his assorted cronies.

Once again - welcome to the "supposedly" real world NATS <img src="frown.gif" border="0"> <img src="frown.gif" border="0">

[Undercover]

Oh what a surprise....

Well at least it illustrates perfectly why I gave up my long-held membership of said political party.

I remember travelling the length of the country and handing out leaflets in the streets to fight against this happening. They knew they'd made a bad decision but were too damn arrogant to admit it! <img src="mad.gif" border="0">

And let's not let them pretend that the blame for NATS troubles can be laid at the door of terrorism. Sept 11th certainly made things worse, but NATS was in a state long before then.

[Red Four]

Radar - Thanks for the info.

The En-route service may well be accountably different from the airport services. However if TAG are given this bailout by government, this then helps TAG constituent airlines; TAG constituent airlines pay the majority of the airport authority fees at the (NATS)airports; these airport authorities then continue to be able to pay... the NATS airport's ATC contracts.

I know this is an over simplistic view, but it just seems that if this occurs that it would be an indirect state subsidy of one ATC provider, whilst other ATC providers (perhaps also in need of a boost to finances after 911) can go whistle.

[Bright-Ling]

Red 4...

...as pants as the whole facade is, this is why it is public-private partnership as opposed to full privatisation.

If you go to NATS registered offices at One Kemble Street off Kingsway, you will see on the main windows that NATS En-Croute is a seperate company registered singularly, as its NATS airports (and about 4 other NATS divisions!)

However, I agree - it is all a mess.

[ 31 December 2001: Message edited by: Bright-Ling ]</p>

[White Rose]

and to think, the whole idea of PPP was so that we could borrow money and the Government would not have to bail us out. The only solution is a properly run, State owned ATC service.
What a shame some people regret not doing anything to fight PPP, although at least some are big enough to admit it.
Back your Unions, they are still fighting for our best interests.