Stansted Airport sale decision overturned
A DECISION to force BAA to sell Stansted Airport, as well as its Scottish hubs, has been overturned at a tribunal. A ruling made by the Competition Commission (CC) in March last year, in a bid to break up BAA s airport monopoly, was quashed by the Competi
A DECISION to force BAA to sell Stansted Airport, as well as its Scottish hubs, has been overturned at a tribunal.
A ruling made by the Competition Commission (CC) in March last year, in a bid to break up BAA's airport monopoly, was quashed by the Competition Appeal Tribunal(CAT).
The CC had ruled that BAA must sell Gatwick, Stansted and one of its Scottish airports - Glasgow or Edinburgh. The airport operator sold Gatwick for �1.5billion.
Criticising the decision, Ryanair's Michael O'Leary, said: "The original Competition Commission decision to order the break-up of the BAA airport monopoly was welcomed by the entire airline industry, passengers and the national media.
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"Today's decision, which appears to be based on a legal technicality (or irrelevancy), will now delay the much needed introduction of competition and consumer choice at Stansted by at least two years.
"We regret that passengers at Stansted will pay higher charges and suffer inferior facilities for at least two more years as a result of this regrettable Competition Appeal Tribunal decision.
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"As traffic continues to decline at Stansted, and airlines and passengers continue to suffer high charges and badly run facilities, we again call on the BAA monopoly to sell Stansted Airport in order to introduce much needed competition in the London airport market, or alternatively for the Court of Appeal to overturn the Tribunal's ruling and bring forward the break-up of the high cost, inefficient and anti-consumer BAA airport monopoly in the interests of competition and a better deal for British consumers, passengers and tourism.