Leading UK airlines, including the major charter carriers, have called on the government to water down plans to privatise air traffic control service Nats, threatening to sell their stake in the system if it does not.
The Airline Group of seven carriers has written to transport secretary Philip Hammond warning the proposed sale of the government’s 49% stake in Nats would be “highly damaging”.
The seven airlines in the group – British Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways, BMI, easyJet, Thomson Airways, Thomas Cook Airlines and Monarch Airlines – bought a joint stake of 42% in Nats when the system was part-privatised by the last government in 2001.
They feared then that a rival commercial bid for Nats might compromise air traffic control. Now they fear the UK would lose a voice in discussions on a single air traffic system for Europe if the government retains no stake in Nats.
In a letter to Hammond, Airline Group chairman Peter Read warned: “It would be highly damaging if we were on the sidelines while others, notably France, Germany and Spain, decided the future of the air traffic control industry.” He said: “There is a real risk such an outcome would occur if the UK were the only country without a government shareholding in its national ATC [air traffic control].”
The letter goes on: “The absence of a government stake would make it difficult to justify continued airline participation in the ownership of Nats.” The group proposes the government retain at least a 25% stake in the system.Details of the letter were revealed by The Observer newspaper at the weekend. The government is due to announce its plans for privatising Nats in the Budget on March 23.