2.2 For the Government and the Airline Group, administration would have meant that the value of their existing equity stakes in NATS would have been at severe risk and that the future development of the Air Traffic Control System could have been prejudiced. For the Banks who had financed NATS, administration would have risked their loans, leaving the fate of these in the hands of an Administrator. The Civil Aviation Authority has duties under the Transport Act 2000 to further the interests of users of NATS' services and to secure that the Company will not find it unduly difficult to finance its activities - responsibilities that would have been difficult to discharge if NATS were being run by an independent Administrator.
2.3 So each of the main participants in the negotiations to restructure the finances of the NATS PPP had reasons to want to avoid the Company going into administration. But any participant signalling that it would ultimately be unwilling to let the Company go into administration would have found itself in a poor negotiating position. The Department's negotiating tactics towards the other participants were therefore vital.