The competition watchdog has ordered BAA to sell three of its seven UK airports, ending its monopoly ownership of the leading airports in London and in Scotland. In the toughest corporate sell-off ever demanded by the Competition Commission, BAA, a majority owned subsidiary of Spain’s Ferrovial, will be required to sell Gatwick, Stansted and one of either Glasgow or Edinburgh airports within two years. It will keep control of Heathrow, its most prized asset The commission said it had found “competition problems with adverse effects for both passengers and airlines” at all seven of BAA’s UK airports – Southampton and Aberdeen are the other two. A “key problem” was BAA’s common ownership, which precluded any competition between them.
Link:Promise of new era of lower charges - provides details of how passengers and airlines should benefit. However, there is some concern that individual airports are still monopolies and could raise their charges to recoups the costs of purchase unless there is some form of price regulation. The market will not be sufficiently competitive to ensure effective self regulation.
