01/02/2012

Ryanair Call Sale of Stansted After Ruling

Budget airline Ryanair has called on the British Airport Authority (BAA) to sell of Stansted Airport after a ruling by the Competition Commission was upheld.

The Competition Commission originally ruled three years ago that BAA's dominance in London and Scotland meant it must sell Gatwick, Stansted and either Glasgow or Edinburgh airports.

On Wednesday, BAA lost its appeal against the ruling, although it has already sold Gatwick and Edinburgh. The authority had argued it was not reasonable to consider Stansted as serving the same market as its other London airport, Heathrow.

However, welcoming the decision, Ryanair claimed BAA had doubled passenger charges and presided over record "traffic declines" from 24m in 2007 to 18m in 2011.

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said: “These repeated delays in the sale of Stansted must now end. Ferrovial [BAA's Spanish owners] and the BAA had used every legal tactic to delay this sale for four years since it was first recommended by the Competition Commission in 2008."

(DW)

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