The October 19 guest speaker at the UK Aviation Club, Nats CEO Paul Barron, boss of Britain”s airways, asked the question ”What is NATS?”
No it is not an acronym. And not a shortened name. It is the new official title of the organisation that runs the sky part of civil air travel in the UK. And it used to be National Air Traffic Systems.
It seems this is the latest fashion, or branding. Just use letters. In case you have forgotten we”ve listed what organisations used to be called:
BAE Systems ” British Aerospace
bmi ” British Midland
BP Plc ” British Petroleum
BT Plc ” British Telecom
HSBC ” Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation
ITV ” Independent Television
KPMG ” Peat Marwick Mitchell merged with Klynveld Main Goerdler
BBC does actually stand for the British Broadcasting Corporation and of course M&S is still Marks and Spencer Plc regardless of what you or I might call it.
BA might like to try, but British Airways on the side of an aircraft still looks pretty good and is excellent marketing.
Which brings us to the point: for the sake of our children do we really want all this fancy (and expensive) branding. Will it be a Christmas quiz question for the future? ”What is NATS?” Some bright spark, not an aviation type, might come up with Non Available Training System, or something similar. Suggestions please.