Stephen Byers,
the transport secretary, was plunged into a new political
crisis last night after it emerged the taxpayer is
to throw a £30m lifeline to the part-privatised
national air traffic control system.
Under an emergency package being thrashed out with
the City banks that financed the controversial £750m
sell-off last summer, the government, a 49% stakeholder
in Nats, is being forced to offer the loan as the
price for their continuing support.
The banks - Barclays Capital, Abbey National, HBOS
and Bank of America - will stump up a matching £30m
sum and are demanding a new business plan from Nats.
Following a day of denials and retractions, the proposals
were presented to the Nats board yesterday, but have
yet to be formally submitted to ministers. The government
admitted negotiations have been continuing for weeks,
but said it was still studying the impact of different
air traffic forecasts on Nats' finances.
In a statement the transport department insisted:
"September 11 had a serious impact on Nats' revenues.
To blame this on the public-private partnership is
nonsense - the problem would have arisen whatever
Nats' status".
Mr Byers, who is already wracked by accusations of
incompetence over the railways and struggling to retain
control of his warring department, badly needed to
avoid troubles on a new front. But leftwing MPs demanded
the renationalisation of Nats and claimed the crisis
proved the incompetence of the private sector management.
It is understood that Nats believes its needs the
£60m to keep Britain's skies open until the
end of the year and avoid a cashflow crisis. Some
staff were not paid at Christmas due to the crisis.
The new money is likely to take the form of a short
term loan to Nats, which already has a £1.46bn
credit facility from the four banks. Some £750m
of that facility was drawn down in the summer to buy
a 46% stake in the air traffic control system from
the government.
The remaining half of the facility was earmarked for
long-term capital investment and was supposed to be
untouched for short-term financial needs.
Nats' urgent need for cash stems from the events of
September 11 and the dramatic fall in transatlantic
air traffic.
Nats, in common with the airlines, was forced to redraw
its business plan following the terrorist attacks,
with its revenues estimated to be £230m lower
over five years than originally projected. It has
already taken action to reduce its cost base by £200m
over five years. It is cutting 20% of its staff.
Last week, Nats applied to the civil aviation authority
for permission to increase charges on airlines using
UK airspace and part of the Atlantic. The original
business plan proposed Nats cut its charges in real
terms by 4% in 2003 and by 5% in both 2004 and 2005.
One banking source said: "What we're looking
for from Nats is an increase in fee incomes and some
financial support from the government."
A CAA spokesman made it clear there would be no quick
answer. The government retains a 49% stake in Nats
while the 46% bought with the bank loan is controlled
by seven British airlines. Another 5% is owned by
staff.
Following the disclosures in the Guardian yesterday,
the Nats chairman Chris Gibson-Smith, tried to play
down the scale of the problem and insisted Nats was
not seeking government compensation, or facing the
threat of bankruptcy. He said Nats' bankers felt it
had a strong future. "The story that the banks
are about to pull the plug is not true. If we need
more money then we'll talk to our shareholders".
Industry sources said it was inconceivable that the
air traffic system could be allowed to go bust because
of international undertakings signed by the government.
"The government will not be able to let Nats
go bankrupt," a banking source said. "There
is no way it can be allowed to fall."
Leftwing MPs urged the government to renationalise
Nats while the Liberal Democrats insisted Nats should
have been turned into a not-for-profit company, along
the lines of the proposed replacement for Railtrack.
John McDonnell, Labour MP for Hayes, said: "The
amazing skills of the private sector, lauded so highly
by the government, have brought air traffic control
to near bankruptcy. Nats under public ownership produced
a massive surplus for the Treasury in every year."
May 10, 2002.
[Source: The Guardian, February
20, 2002 www.guardian.co.uk]
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