The Weekend Australian is reporting the Australian Government is considering the sale of the national Air Traffic Control provider, AirservicesAustralia, to provide revenue to balance the Commonwealth budget.
AirservicesAustralia also provides Aviation Fire Service, maintains aviation facilities such as radar and navigation beacons and provides information to pilots to enable them to fly safely . During the 2011 to 2012 financial year AirservicesAustralia had a revenue of $898 million dollars for a profit of $45.6 million dollars. AirservicesAustralia had 4000 employees of which 1000 were classified as Air Traffic Controllers.
The current AirservicesAustralia corporate plan outlines a commitment of $1.1 billion dollars over the next five years and beyond to update aging facilities.
The previous Conservative government had flagged AirservicesAustralia as an potential asset to be sold. To this end in 2007 the government transferred the airspace regulatory authority, the Office of Airspace Regualtion, from AirservicesAustralia to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
Some nations, such as Britain, Canada and several Middle East nations, have their Air Traffic Control system managed by non government agencies.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/national-icon-sales-may-help-fix-budget/story-fn59niix-1226728906231 for copy of the report.
http://www.casa.gov.au/scripts/nc.dll?WCMS:STANDARD::pc=PC_90448 for information on OAR
http://www.airservicesaustralia.com/wp-content/uploads/13-034BKT_Corporate_Plan_2013-18_WEB.pdf for copy of the latest AirservicesAustralia corporate report
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/coalition-cold-on-privatisations/story-fn59niix-1226729602393# for update of story