Court tells BAA to sell Standsted - and Glasgow or Edinburgh

THE British Court of Appeal has ruled out that the country's biggest airport operator BAA (the private firm once known a the British Airports Authority) must sell Standsted plus either Glasgow or Edinburgh airports, reported London's International Freighting Weekly.

The Competition Commission (CC) ruled in March 2009 that BAA must sell Gatwick, Stansted and either Glasgow or Edinburgh airport because the operator had come to nearly monopolise the British airports.

BAA successfully appealed against that ruling in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in December 2009. CAT's judgment stated that there was "apparent bias" in the CC's ruling over Gatwick because one of the CC panel members had been an advisor to the operator of Manchester Airport, which was a competitor in acquiring Gatwick. Yet Gatwick was finally sold for GBP1.5 billion (US$2.3 billion) to US-based investment fund Global Infrastructure Partners last year.

The Court of Appeal's decision quashed CAT's ruling. In response, BBA said that it could appeal to the Supreme Court, a body established under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 and which only started work a year ago, assuming the functions of the Law Lords.

In addition to running Stansted, Glasgow and Edinburgh airports, the Spanish-owned BAA also operates Heathrow, Southampton and Aberdeen airports.
(Source:www.schednet.com)