Is this the end of SERCO's Dubai contract????
 

London: The UK's National Air Traffic Services (NATS) said yesterday it has won a contract to design airspace for traffic around Dubai World Central International Airport.

NATS, which is responsible for managing Britain's air traffic control, said in a statement work on the contract to design military and civil terminal airspace around the planned Gulf airport would start in July.

NATS declined to put a value on the contract, which it said was its largest overseas airspace contract.

Gulf tourism and trade hub Dubai is pouring $33 billion (Dh121.37 billion) into the planned international airport and infrastructure and real estate around the site.

NATS won a £725 million (Dh4.9 billion) contract with the UK government in February to provide air traffic control for military aircraft. NATS is 49 per cent owned by the UK government. Forty-two per cent is owned by a consortium of British Airways and six other British airlines, while 4 per cent is held by airports operator BAA and 5 per cent by NATS staff.

Looks like it's for the airspace changes - not ATS services.... :=

To provide the facilities for military controllers to provide ATC to military aircraft.

BD

The same facilities which they've been providing for many years, which can't be provided by anyone else - hardly "won" was it.

You've got to just love the spin of the publicity machine ;)

Won is precisely correct. This contract went through the full MoD purchasing process and took some 5 plus years before it was awarded. Many other options had been looked at including MoD building its own Area Control Centre and having radar piped in.
NATS was most certainly not a sure fire winner.

BD

Man, I would have done the airspace redesign for a lot less than that <G>... How hard could it be????