17 September 2008

Gatwick up for sale

Gatwick has been put up for sale by BAA, just weeks after the Competition Commission said the operator should sell three of its airports in the South East.

In a statement today, BAA chief executive Colin Matthews said the process would begin immediately.

"Gatwick has long been an important and valuable part of BAA and the decision to sell was not taken lightly. We believe that the airport's customers, staff and business will benefit from the earliest possible resolution of current uncertainty.

"When the Competition Commission published its provisional findings, we said that we would be realistic in our response, though we disagree with the Commission's report and the analysis on which it is founded.

"We will continue to present our case, in respect of the South East airports and those in Scotland. At Stansted, we believe that a change of ownership would interfere with the process of securing planning approval for a second runway, which remains a key feature of Government air transport policy.

"The Commission itself states that a shortage of runway capacity in the South East is a main cause of poor service standards, but we believe its proposed remedies will delay delivery of that capacity.

"BAA will continue to change in many respects. We have a new management team. Our priority is to improve the quality of service we offer passengers and airlines.

"Success depends not only on our day to day management of our airports, but also on policy-makers taking the right decisions on runway capacity and future regulation.

"Our response to the Competition Commission's report, and our announcement concerning Gatwick, is intended to focus our efforts accordingly."

Easyjet quickly issued a response, saying the move was not a surprise but a "possible cause for alarm".

It claimed it has always argued that simply breaking up BAA will do nothing to improve competition because ââ¬ÅâœGatwick is a local monopoly and simply selling Gatwick to the highest bidder wonââ¬â¢t change that factââ¬~.

ââ¬ÅâœGatwick is Ferrovialââ¬â¢s way of reducing its debt burden ââ¬' but it means that UK airport policy is being dictated not by the Government but by the short-term financial constraints of a highly-indebted foreign owner,ââ¬~ it added.

Earlier this month, Virgin Atlantic said it was in talks with partners interested in forming a joint bid for the airport.

Other potential bidders include the owners of Manchester Airport and Australian-based MacQuarie.

Regulators have valued the airport at Ã&#pound;1.8bn.

By Bev Fearis

• PRINT
• SEND TO A FRIEND
• SHARE

Post your comment

Your Comments (4)

, be the first to post a comment.
Your email:

Your comment title:


Your comment:

Email other comments made to this story

5 characters

• Xenophobic? Moi?
  
  

  Yes, well, Jon Hewson is on the same track as are many others (er... probably about 99% of the Great British Public that have the misfortune to have to suffer at the hands of the BAA) - if in more measured tones. I do not have a morbid fear of foreigners. It's factually correct., they are Spanish and they do have their back against the wall. But Hey! W.S. let's all worry about semantics - meanwhile, come 2012, the UK and London will be able to show the world what a bunch of wallys we really are....

  By Murray Harrold, Thursday, September 18, 2008
• Xenophobic anonymous
  
  

  So we now have xenophobic comments on TravelMole? Thanks Murray Harold for your insights, I'm sure they took a while to formulate.

  By W Shearer, Thursday, September 18, 2008
• Competition Commission Farce
  
  

  Easyjet are quite right, it is just "six of one half a dozen of the other". The Competition Commission have played with the elastoplast and done, basically, bugger all. Let's face it, the BAA are a useless bunch of morons owned by a nearly bust bunch of Spaniards whom one would not trust to build an airport loo, let alone run one. In 2012 we are to host the world at this rate, compared to previous Olympic shows, we will be lucky if the Olympic authorities do not decide to move the whole thing somewhere else - the BAA must be re-nationalised (along with Rail and a few other things) and let's start moving forward.

  By Murray Harrold, Wednesday, September 17, 2008
• Preemptive Sale Would Put BAA in Control
  
  

  Likely BAA has read the tea leaves and figured by putting Gatwick on the block it will control the proposed forced sale of assets. The UK government should force BAA to put ALL of its airports on the block so that everyone has the opportunity to bid for what are, essentially, assets of the country. BAA has repeatedly demonstrated it can't run Heathrow efficiently - for either the passengers or the airlines -so it is only right that some other entity be given the opportunity to put their money behind their beliefs and make Heathrow a leading world airport which is something it isn't at this time. The owners of airports should also be required to also divest themselves of any activity than running the airports, particularly the retail shop areas.

  By Jon Hewson, Wednesday, September 17, 2008