The UK government has agreed to provide its share of a £60 million ($86 million) loan to National Air Traffic Services (NATS), which was partially privatised last year. Some £30 million will come from the government and £30 million from the consortium of banks - Abbey National, Barclays Capital, HBOS and Bank of America - which backed the original acquisition last year. The loan facility will be available for the next six months, and is intended to buy NATS time to deal with the dramatic drop in traffic, which has caused serious revenue shortfalls since 11 September.
Source: Flight International
