Dowty Group Plc has confirmed weekend press reports that its consortium, and that led by GEC Plc, have been eliminated in the bidding for the UK Civil Aviation Authority’s proposed new en route air traffic control centre in Bursledon, Hampshire: the Authority is to award UKP2m contracts to the surviving consortia to put together definitive proposals for design of the centre; the two are IBM Corp with Siemens AG, Logica Plc and Data Sciences Ltd, the former Thorn EMI Software, and Thomson-CSF SA with Sema Group Plc and its BAe-Sema Ltd affiliate; commentators suggest that Thomson is only in there because it is prone to bid low, and will therefore depress the level at which the IBM consortium feels able to bid.
