Richard Deakin: Airports at Heathrow and the Thames Estuary 'just wouldn't work' You couldn't have both an estuary airport and Heathrow at its current level. The two together just wouldn't work. I'm not looking to pick a fight with Boris. I'm not slighted at all. I have a very busy job, if people don't want to ask, that is not a problem but I'm keen to help. Deakin says he has to remain neutral on Britain's aviation policy, including the controversy over whether Heathrow should get a third runway. But it won't stop him pointing out anything that he feels would make NATS' job almost impossible. "It wouldn't mean Heathrow has to close," he continues on the estuary plan. But Heathrow would have to reduce capacity and that would be a difficult conversation for the airlines based there. Hands up, who wants to reduce capacity at Heathrow? There's a huge amount of investment going in there at the moment with new terminals. It's British Airways' hub. So it's a big question for BA chief executive Keith Williams. Our job is to provide the airspace service demanded of us by the airports and the UK planning system but we want to make sure that what we're asked to deliver can be delivered. To say to NATS, 'We want you to manage a four-runway airport in the estuary and keep Heathrow at its current volume because that's going to the UK's planning assumption' would give us cause for concern because I don't think we would be able deliver that. The Olympics will also put London's airports in the spotlight, with an extra 4,000 commercial and charter flights coming into UK airspace, concentrated around the opening and closing ceremonies and the men's 100m final. Typically, NATS handles up to 7,500 flights a day in the UK in an average summer, with Heathrow accounting for up to 1,500 daily arrivals and departures. "That puts it into context," says Deakin. It's equivalent to nearly another three Heathrows on top of the existing capacity on those days. We'll also have around 1,500 helicopter flights a day in and out of London during that period. Normally, there might be a couple of hundred. To cope, a network of 40 airfields in the South East have been woven into traffic flow patterns over the Games period. For a new airport in the Thames Estuary, however, forcing traffic to move would be a different matter altogether. "You cannot mandate airlines to move," Deakin says. Users based at Heathrow like it in terms of its proximity to London and the fast rail links to the rest of the country. The danger is that if airlines are asked to move to the estuary airport, you then overnight solve the problem of Heathrow and it becomes the gem. You have an airport in a prime location without all the capacity constraints, while you have various airlines stuck out in the east of London where arguably it's not such an attractive location. Then there's the issue of what happens in the 20 years it would take to plan and construct an estuary airport. Heathrow currently operates just 41 daily flight slots to North America and just 14 in total to Brazil, Russia, India and China, excluding Hong Kong. With global aviation capacity expected to expand dramatically, Heathrow owner BAA Group has already warned that the airport's capacity crunch is harming UK growth, citing business leaders in fast-growing economies who say they are put off investing in the UK because of a lack of direct flights. "Certainly, a third runway at Heathrow could technically be an option," says Deakin delicately, mindful that this has been excluded from the Aviation Review's scope. But a lot of people say that, compared with Amsterdam's Schiphol or Frankfurt or Paris, London only has two runways. If you look at London as a city served by a network of airports, you could argue we have eight runways: two at Heathrow, and one each at Gatwick, Northolt, London City, Southend, Luton and Stansted. Deakin is proud of NATS' achievements at Gatwick, the world's busiest single runway airport, with 55 movements an hour, and Heathrow, which manages 94 off two runways - at least 25pc better than any other dual-runway airport. "I was at a conference last year where a guy from American Airlines stood up and lamented that we only had two runways at Heathrow and said Dallas Forth Worth had just finished building its seventh," he recalls. I stood up and showed a chart that showed that we do as many movements out of Heathrow as they do out of seven runways at Dallas. It's not all about the number of runways. We do sweat the asset. Ironically, NATS' expertise in handling Britain's crowded airspace is giving it export success. The company, which handles air traffic control at 16 UK airports, saw pre-tax profits double from £89m to £195m last year on revenues up £88m to £865m, while commercial orders worth £490m were taken from 20 countries. "Exports are now 20pc of our revenue," says Deakin, who started his career as an engineering apprentice at BAE Systems and arrived at NATS from French aerospace group, Thales. Two years ago, we exported nowhere except Gibraltar and 10 years ago, we were just a government department. This has been a huge transformation. We're ahead of the game from an aircraft movement point of view by an order of magnitude compared with our nearest rivals. Our average delay per flight is 7.3 seconds. That's one-tenth of the European average. You often hear when on a plane that there's an air traffic control restriction but nine times out of 10 that's not the case. What they should say in the UK is: 'We've been delayed because of lack of tarmac'. That would be more honest. Holding at Heathrow is not a measure of air traffic efficiency. The future for the company is still relatively unclear, with the Government still owning 49pc after its 2001 part-privatisation. While George Osborne, the Chancellor, said two years ago that the Government would look at options for the stake, its interest in a sale is understood to have cooled, with concerns about the political sensitivity of potential foreign ownership of such a strategic asset. However, members of the Airline Group consortium, made up of BA, Monarch, easyJet, Lufthansa, Thomas Cook, Thomson and Virgin Atlantic, are said to want to sell their combined 42pc holding. A further 4pc is owned by BAA, while 5pc is controlled by an employee share trust. "It's a question for the shareholders," is Deakin's only comment on the sale issue, but he is adamant that NATS needs long-term shareholders. "It's quite a long cycle in this business," he says. It's not the sort of business you can buy, strip out costs and then flog in a few years' time for an unhealthy amount of profit. NATS is not a traditional investment. First and foremost, our duty is safety and service provision. It's a fine balancing act of priorities. Evidence of that is on the desk in his Southampton head office in the shape of three old-style red telephones. They are linked directly with airport terminal control in the event of emergencies. "They're straight out of Dr Strangelove aren't they?" he laughs. These lines get us straight through. If we had to clear the skies, we have the means to do that. The last time we simulated it, we managed it in 23 minutes. If there was a decision made during the Olympics, where we were asked to clear the skies, we would be ready to do that. We're hoping not to have to put that to the test. Richard Deakin CV Age 48 Family married to Marian with two children aged nine and 12 Lives Surrey Favourite film Legends of the Fall Favourite book An Unexpected Light by Jason Elliot Drives Mercedes E Class estate Interests photography and sailing