Stansted saga continues

In the latest stage of a long legal battle, the Court of Appeal last Thursday upheld the Competition Commission's 2009 ruling that BAA exerted a dominant hold on airports in Scotland and the southeast of England.  In April the group agreed to sell Edinburgh airport to Global Infrastructure Partners, owner of London's City and Gatwick airports, for US$1.3bn.

BAA owns London's Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, as well as Southampton and Stansted in England, plus Glasgow and Aberdeen airports in Scotland.

In a move that could again delay the final outcome a spokesperson for BAA said that the group would now consider the judgment carefully and intended to submit an appeal to the Supreme Court, Britain's highest legal entity.

Ryanair is the dominant airline at Stansted and has published known figures which emphasize that, whilst there are issues concerning the airport’s future, both airlines and passengers are staying away.  The throughput has dropped from 24m in 2007 to 18m in 2011, with not much over 17m expected in 2012. www.baa.com

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