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Business News for Tuesday January 6, 2009
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UK anti-trust board: End airport monopoly
Tuesday April 22, 2008
Britain's antitrust regulator reported Tuesday that BAA's ownership of seven airports, including three major airports serving London, may not serve the interests of passengers or airlines. The preliminary report suggested that the Competition Commission may call for BAA to dispose of some of its facilities which include London's Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports.
Were the London airports separately owned, "there is scope for a degree of competition between them despite capacity constraints," the Competition Commission said. BAA, which is now owned by Grupo Ferrovial of Spain, also owns airports in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen in Scotland and Southampton in England. Its airports handle around 90 percent of passenger flights made in southeast England and 63 percent of all flights to and from Britain. "It has long been argued by BAA and others that competition cannot develop between BAA's London airports until the shortage of capacity has been alleviated," said Christopher Clarke, chairman of the BAA airports inquiry. "Two of the questions we will be seeking to answer at the next stage are whether and to what extent the shortage of capacity is a consequence of the lack of competition between these airports and also whether alleviation of that shortage can reasonably be expected in the absence of competition." Grupo Ferrovial shares were up 0.6 percent at €48.45 ($76.83) Tuesday morning.
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