The British Airports Authority (BAA) must sell one of its airports in Scotland before it disposes of Stansted Airport, the Competition Commission (CC) ruled today.
The Competition Commission ruled earlier this year that Stansted would have to be sold first, with Edinburgh or Glasgow to be sold after that. However, following a challenge by BAA, who argued that the market in the South East of England had changed substantially since the original decision in 2009, the Commission said that one of the Scottish air fields would be put up for sale instead.
Laura Carstensen, chairman of the Competition Commission’s BAA remedies implementation group, said in a statement: “We feel this is the best approach in view of the further delay caused to the Stansted sale by this second appeal.
“It is frustrating that we cannot proceed with the Stansted disposal until this new challenge from BAA has been dealt with but in the meantime we will press ahead with the Scottish sale and, as a result, passengers and airlines in Scotland will enjoy the benefits of greater competition even sooner than they would have done otherwise.”
In a statement on BAA’s website, Colin Matthews, the group’s chief executive, said the company was “pleased” with the decision.
“BAA has already sold Gatwick and will now sell either Edinburgh or Glasgow airport. Both Edinburgh and Glasgow are great airports with great futures and we will be sorry to see one of them leave BAA,” he said.
“We will continue with our judicial review proceedings against the CC’s decision requiring BAA to sell Stansted.
“We believe the South East airports market has changed and BAA has changed since the CC’s (original) 2009 decision. It is also clearer now than it has ever been that Heathrow and Stansted serve different markets.”
With the disposal of a Scottish airport BAA will have five UK airports in its portfolio: London Heathrow, London Stansted, Southampton, Aberdeen, and either Edinburgh or Glasgow.
(Image: HerryLawford)
