UK mulls NATS sale once again

Britain has once again tabled a possible sale of its stake in its national air navigation service provider NATS.UK finance minister George Osborne yesterday published a 146-page spending review in which the British government revealed it is mulling the sale of its controlling 49 per cent stake as part of a fresh £5 billion privatisation effort.A proposed £1billion disposal of the Government’s share in NATS was abandoned back in 2012 with the then UK transport minister judging it was better to halt the deal rather than risk the political and financial consequences, citing ‘strategic concerns’.Those concerns were understood to centre on fears that German air navigation service provider Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS) could acquire an influential stake. DFS has since been awarded the contract to operate London Gatwick air navigation services from 2016 until 2025, which represents the largest UK airport to consider handing its air traffic services to a foreign provider so far.An industry source tells Air Traffic Management that while this ‘comes around every few years’ this time, the bid has more momentum.Indeed, when stakeholders in the Airline Group – a 41.9 per cent shareholder in NATS – decided to dispose of the majority of their interests in 2013, the combined shareholding was sold to UK university pension fund USS. This deal represented the most significant change in ownership since the company became a public-private partnership in 2001.