High Court agrees to Judivial Review over Gatwick airport charges
The High Court has approved EasyJet’s application for a Judicial Review of the regulatory process that allowed BAA to impose an increase in airport charges at Gatwick Airport last spring.
The airline said the move was a legal breakthrough and will be the first time that the Civil Aviation Authority has been subject to Judicial Review for a regulatory price decision.
EasyJet is objecting to the way the CAA has allowed BAA to raise prices at Gatwick by 21% (from £5.61 to £6.79) this year, and by 31% + RPI by 2013.
It is objecting on the following three grounds:
1. Unlawful departure from the Competition Commission’s (CC’s) recommendations. The statutory powers under which the CAA sets the price cap at designated airports requires that the CAA must refer its proposals to the CC, and to “have regard to†its recommendations and to state any reasons for not accepting them. EasyJet believes the CAA gave insufficient weight to the recommendations of the CC.
2. Unlawful treatment of BAA’s late submission of operating expenditure costs. The CAA failed to adopt a fair and lawful approach to handling a £267 million (subsequently reduced to £218 million) “eleventh hour†operating expenditure submission from BAA. This was submitted on November 8 2007, following more than two years of discussions, after the referral to the CC, and less than two weeks before the CAA was due to publish its firm proposals for airport charges.
3. Unlawfully disregarding the CC’s public interest finding that there was no justification for BAA to receive “bonus†payments for meeting service levels, for which it would already have been paid. The CAA ignored the CC’s public interest finding in relation to the Service Quality Rebate scheme, in which it saw no justification for bonuses to be paid to BAA for meeting its targets. Yet, the CAA has incorporated a bonus scheme into the price cap.
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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