NATS In The World Arena

[10W]

With the government consultation now closed (and cynically you might say with their minds already made up) and Privatisation in one form or another more than likely inevitable, what do you think NATS should do to make the most of a bad deal ? Perhaps go into global ATC consultancy supplying expertise to other parts of the World, perhaps even provide ATS in other parts of the World (for example why not provide an ACC to cover the whole of Africa using up and coming technology ?), take over people like SERCO and asset strip them for a change or just let everyone else walk over us ?

Any ideas ?

[POMPI]

If NATS could get their act together and decide to do some selling in the ATC services area they would be a very credible supplier. However, they won't as they do not have the commercial know how, they think they do, but they don't. This is all largley acedemic anyway as nobody in NATS trusts the management enough to listen to them or more importantly trust them.

[10W]

Well let's hope that someone somewhere does get the act together, even if it's an outsider brought in. I understand well the trust issue but are we all prepared just to lie down and bury our heads in the sand based on our current perceptions or thoughts or instead grab it by the horns and turn it into a world beater ? Time to wake up before it's too late. We don't have to do it for management, why not do it for our own futures instead ?

[Euroc5175]

One area of expertise that NATS could certainly offer on a global scale would be R&D. Remove the various financial constraints that are imposed on R&D at present and the development of future controller toolsets / datalink / free-flight concepts could be funded by numerous agencies / organisations external to NATS, and dare I say, the UK.
Euroc.

[POMPI]

Euro,
See my previous comments...
NATS are so entrenched in the civil service way of doing things. See the car parking arragements for example - at Hurn, LATCC, NERC and so on, that they must get out of the civil service mentality of doing things. I agree Data linking and all the work with flight strips and so on is great, but they must get their collective commercial heads on.
It is so infuriating that they have all these good ideas and then they get lost in the civil service 'mire'. Sadly I think that some of these people that hold things up will still be around when NATS gets privatised.
Notice I said when not if.
49%, 51% it's on the cards.