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Jan 13, 02, 7:54 pm
Liddell talks bode ill for air traffic cash
HELEN LIDDELL, Secretary of State for Scotland, is to risk pushing the privatised National Air Traffic Control System (Nats) into serious financial difficulties this week.
On Wednesday she is meeting Richard Everitt, chief executive of Nats, and is expected to make clear her anxieties about his proposed delay of a £60m development of a new control facility at Prestwick in Scotland.
Any demand for a rethink could blow a hole in a £200m emergency cost-cutting programme Nats has been forced to introduce in the wake of plunging air traffic after the September 11 attacks. Nats wants to delay the building of Prestwick by at least two years.
Nats earns its revenue from planes it directs through UK air space, with more than half coming from transatlantic flights. In October, air traffic fell 44pc compared with the same period 12 months ago, although by December it recovered to only 6pc down.
An airline consortium owns 46pc of Nats, which it bought for £750m last year. The rest is still mostly owned by the Government.
http://money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml;$sessionid$M4ZM5IQAADQM5QFIQMGCFFWAVCBQ UIV0?xml=/money/2002/01/14/cnnats14.xml&sSheet=/money/2002/01/14/ixcity.html
HELEN LIDDELL, Secretary of State for Scotland, is to risk pushing the privatised National Air Traffic Control System (Nats) into serious financial difficulties this week.
On Wednesday she is meeting Richard Everitt, chief executive of Nats, and is expected to make clear her anxieties about his proposed delay of a £60m development of a new control facility at Prestwick in Scotland.
Any demand for a rethink could blow a hole in a £200m emergency cost-cutting programme Nats has been forced to introduce in the wake of plunging air traffic after the September 11 attacks. Nats wants to delay the building of Prestwick by at least two years.
Nats earns its revenue from planes it directs through UK air space, with more than half coming from transatlantic flights. In October, air traffic fell 44pc compared with the same period 12 months ago, although by December it recovered to only 6pc down.
An airline consortium owns 46pc of Nats, which it bought for £750m last year. The rest is still mostly owned by the Government.
http://money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml;$sessionid$M4ZM5IQAADQM5QFIQMGCFFWAVCBQ UIV0?xml=/money/2002/01/14/cnnats14.xml&sSheet=/money/2002/01/14/ixcity.html