Plan to sell off National Air Traffic Services has been grounded

A controversial sale of the Government’s 49 per cent stake in the National Air Traffic Services has been grounded after hitting turbulence, Transport Secretary Justine Greening will announce today.With German state-controlled bidders in pole position to buy  a controlling interest in NATS, nervous ministers decided it was better to perform a U-turn and dump the deal altogether rather than risk the political and financial fallout from handing control of Britain’s skies to Berlin.The Daily Mail revealed exclusively in May that the deal to sell the nation’s air traffic control provider had stalled and was set to be scrapped completely amid fears that Germany’s state-controlled air traffic control body, Deutsche Flugsicherung, would move in to take over UK airspaceToday, Greening will confirm that fact following a tussle with the Treasury.