Supplementary memorandum by the Department
of Transport (NAT 2B)
NATS FINANCES INQUIRY
On 20 May David Jamieson wrote to the Committee
Chairman providing additional information requested by the Committee
at its hearing on 1 May. You subsequently telephoned me, and asked
if I could provide tables of figures for the graph that was mentioned
in paragraph two of Mr Jamieson's letter, together with figures
for other major incidents that had an impact on transatlantic
flights.
I enclose tables of figures for Lockerbie, the
Gulf War and 11 September. It is the figures in the "Transatlantic
Flights % growth" column which have been transferred to the
graph that was previously forwarded.
In our conversation we also considered other
events for which figures could be provided. We mentioned the Falklands
War in 1982, but that had no impact on civil flights across the
Atlantic. The two events prior to Lockerbie which did have an
effect were the oil crisis in the mid-seventies, which we discussed,
and also the oil crisis at the beginning of the eighties. I accordingly
enclose tables of figures relating to them.
In the tables, the percentage growth figures
represent growth by comparison with the corresponding month in
the previous year. A "CSU" is a chargeable service unit,
which is the basic unit of charging for en route air traffic services
agreed within Eurocontrol. It takes account of both aircraft weight
and distance flown. A flight of 100km by a Boeing 737 aircraft
approximates to one CSU.
I hope this information is useful.
7 June 2002
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