Competition Commission fail in latest BAA sale challenge

26.02.10

Plans to force BAA to sell Stansted plus Glasgow or Edinburgh airports face further substantial delays, with the original ruling likely to be thrown out or massively extended, after the Competition Commission failed in its attempt to have the ruling referred to the Court of Appeal.

The Commission ruled last March that one of the two biggest Scottish airports must be sold along with Stansted and Gatwick over concerns about BAA's market dominance. BAA sold Gatwick in December even though the original ruling was overturned by the Competition Appeal Tribunal later that same month on the basis of ‘apparent bias'.

Yesterday the Commission failed in its bid to have the case referred to the Court of Appeal. The watchdog now intends to apply directly to the court, but press reports suggest that, even if this was successful, the initial two-year timescale for the sales could be doubled or more, especially if there is a need for a second inquiry.

BAA is likely to want to sell airports in order to pay down its big debt pile, but wants to do so on its own time scales, once markets have recovered and it can get a better price for them, especially after losing £277m on the sale of Gatwick. It seems likely to be able to do this.

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