Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON
THE UK CIVIL AVIATION Authority has confirmed that delays to the UK's new Swanwick en route air-traffic-control centre will leave it with a bill of around £10 million ($15.6 million), but says that it hopes to avoid raising user charges to meet the costs.
The £350 million Swanwick project, being built by Loral, was due to open this year, but the CAA has had to put back the deadline until December 1997, because of problems integrating software into subsystems (Flight International, 7 February, P6).
Although Loral is covering the cost of the overrun itself, the CAA will have to fund £10 million to retain and expand the existing London Area and Terminal Control Centre at West Drayton.
"We hope we can avoid passing these costs on to the airlines in the form of increased en route charges", says Derek McLauchlan, chief executive of the CAA's National Air Traffic Services, but he gives no guarantees that this will be possible.
The authority did manage to show a slight improvement in profits for 1995, despite a second year of reductions in most charges. The operating profit came in at just over £74 million on revenues up marginally at £580 million. Operating costs fell by £59.8 million, to £505.7 million, mainly because 1994's figures included restructuring costs of £53 million.
Presenting its annual results at a briefing in London, the authority also outlined plans to re-establish its almost empty air-travel trust fund, which provides compensation to holiday-makers when tour operators collapse.
The fund's reserves have fallen less than £2 million, and are likely to drop further following recent collapses. An application has been made to the Government for permission to borrow £11 million. Legislation required to change the funding rules could not be implemented because of lack of parliamentary time. A potential solution would be to levy each passenger around 50p in 1997.
Source: Flight International
