UK airports for sale
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The British Airports Authority (BAA) has announced that it may be forced to sell off some of its main airports, the BBC has reported. The UK’s Competition Commission is expected to rule that BAA’s near monopoly of airport ownership is uncompetitive, forcing the sale of London’s Gatwick or Stansted airports, plus one of its Scottish facilities. However BAA Chairman Nigel Rudd told the BBC that it would not relinquish control over London Heathrow.
“Heathrow does not compete with Gatwick and with Stansted or with Luton or Manchester,” Rudd said. “It competes with (Paris) Charles de Gaulle, it competes with Dubai now and with (Amsterdam) Schipol, because these are big international hub airports, so the ownership of these airports actually has nothing to do with the competition.”
“I think there is a mood in the country that just wants the business broken up,” he continued.
However the expected ruling will please airlines which have been critical of BAA’s running of the UK’s airports. “We will fully support the break up. Frankly it is about time. Monopolies do not help consumers ever… They (BAA) have been in a position where, essentially, they could control how we travel,” said Paul Charles, Virgin Atlantic’s Director of Communications.
BAA currently owns Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Southampton airports in England, as well as Scottish hubs Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
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