The new plan is to sit on the matter until the furore over transport policy dies down

The new plan is to sit on the matter until the furore over transport policy dies down."With transport hitting the headlines daily, and with the transport agenda in a mess, I think the Government would be foolish to do anything now," said Tom Brake, the Lib Dem aviation spokesman.Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's Department of Transport, the Environment and the Regions declared its preference for the privatisation of NATS in a consultation document published last year. The chairman of NATS, Sir Roy McNulty, told Flight International last week that an announcement on privatisation could come before Parliament rises on 27 July. On Friday, NATS still believed an announcement was "imminent".Sir Roy declared last month that NATS needed an extra pounds 1bn over 10 years to keep the British air traffic control system - widely considered the best in Europe - up to speed.The Treasury does not want this investment inflating the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement. The blueprint was to spin 51 per cent of NATS - currently a unit of the Civil Aviation Authority - off into the private sector in a sale that would net the Government up to pounds 500m.But now, insiders say, the Government has decided to leave NATS out of the Queen's Speech setting out the Government's legislative agenda for the autumn. Two months ago, officials leaked word that the privatisation of NATS would be included.The delay means no sell-off of NATS is likely to be organised before spring 2001, a probable date for the next General Election. It also suggests NATS will not be able to tap the private capital markets for funds either.Instead, air traffic controllers are likely to put themselves in a holding pattern.

Completion of the new air traffic control centre at Swanwick, Hampshire, which is due to begin operating in the winter of 2001/2 - four years late - will probably have to be financed with public money.Overruns have virtually doubled the cost of Swanwick to pounds 620m. Construction of a planned new centre at Prestwick Airport in Scotland may also be delayed.Air traffic controllers responsible for the 600 million plane movements a year through the "Clacton Corridor" - the swarming airspace over the south of England - say politicians are sensationalising the air safety issue.But they concede that any move to transform NATS into a privately controlled company - or even one operating by private-sector disciplines - creates a tension between safety and profits.The Government says it can guarantee air safety through an independent safety regulator. But air traffic controllers point out that privatisation, or even quasi-privatisation, could lead to a spider's web of contracted- out services that would undermine NATS's control over the air traffic control system.. MEDIA giant Pearson has got its sights on a high-profile replacement for Greg Dyke, the head of the company's television business who will leave this autumn to become director-general of the BBC.

Former Channel Four chief executive Michael Grade is among the candidates approached by Pearson - owner of the Financial Times, an educational book publishing empire and a television unit that puts out Baywatch. He is in the process of leaving the health club and entertainment group First Leisure,which he has run since 1997. According to industry sources, Mr Grade is "in the frame" to replace Mr Dyke at Pearson TV, though it is thought unlikely that he will be a straightforward replacement."The headhunters are happy to have Grade on their list," said one. "But their mandate is to look in the US and on the Continent for a replacement for Dyke. They want someone in his or her 30s or 40s who can leverage Pearson's TV business into new media.