Dubai: NATS, the main air traffic control provider in the United Kingdom, wants to increase to increase revenue contribution from the Arabian Gulf, a market dominated by state-owned entities.
In a concerted effort, NATS has opened a permanent office in Dubai and hired a new public relations firm to increase its presence and highlight its focus on the region.
The company, owned 49 per cent by the British government, wants the regions “modest single digit” revenue contribution to “treble” by the end of the decade, Catherine Mason, Managing Director Services at NATS told reporters in Dubai on Wednesday.
NATS has also hired British multinational public relations firm Bell Pottinger to boost its profile in the Gulf. Bell Pottinger’s clientele includes Abu Dhabi Airports and has also been associated with the government of Bahrain, Asma Al-Assad, the wife of the Syrian President, and Alexander Lukashenko, the President of Belarus.
NATS regional footprint has so far been intentionally restricted, the company says, to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman, while other smaller contracts have been undertaken in Kuwait and Bahrain
John Swift, Director of the company’s Middle East operations, said NATS would move into other countries in two to three years time.
NATS primary offering of air traffic management is a service that in the region is mostly controlled by state-owned companies. Swift believes it is inevitable the services are privatised over the next five years due to a push by airlines and airports for more efficient services and expertise. Most airports and airlines in the region are also state-owned
Bill Kiff, Head of Proposition Development for the Middle East at NATS, said Gulf countries need to share more information with each other if they want to subdue the regions air traffic congestion problem. The congestion could one day restrict rapidly expanding airlines such as Emirates and Qatar Airways, which are having an increasing influence on gross domestic product (GDP) growth.
