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BAA could lose Gatwick in competition inquiry
Last updated at 09:52am on 08.08.07Airport operator BAA could be stripped of at least one of its seven British airports in a competition inquiry into its "stranglehold" over millions of passengers.
Critics say the Spanish-owned firm may have to pay the price for years of Heathrow chaos.
BAA is most likely to lose Gatwick, with Stansted another possibility.
The inquiry comes as BAA was accused yesterday of putting profit from its shops ahead of investing cash to cut security queues and baggage delays for its customers.
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BAA could be made to pay for years of chaos at Heathrow
The firm runs Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton airports. Experts claim this gives BAA - formerly the British Airports Authority - an anticompetitive advantage against the interests of consumers, a charge the firm denies.
BAA had its busiest-ever month in July, processing a record 15.1 million passengers at its seven UK airports - a 0.2 per cent rise on the July 2006 total. This was despite a 1.7% dip in traffic at Heathrow.
British Airways, which lost 25,000 bags at the peak of last month's security alert, insists BAA is partly to blame because the airport is running over its capacity.
The Office of Fair Trading referred BAA to the Competition Commission in March.
Airlines, businesses and even taxi drivers have made submissions criticising the set-up as anti-competetive and against consumer interests.
British Airways says in its evidence that BAA's ownership of London's three big airports 'blunts the incentive to expand capacity at Heathrow' and "restricts and distorts" competition.
Tory transport spokesman Theresa Villiers said: "Passengers' patience has been stretched to breaking point with endless queues and an airport operator who seems more concerned with running shopping malls than an efficient airport.
"The Government needs to get a grip."
Critics said investment in Heathrow has been slashed while revenues have soared.
In the year since it bought BAA for £ 10.3billion, Spanish firm Grupo Ferrovial has put £252million into it, not including the £ 800million invested this year on Terminal 5. But the airport's revenue has grown from £1.077billion to £1.232billion.
Reader views (2)
For goodness sake let them keep Gatwick! It's Heathrow that needs to be brought under control. Lengthy queues to implement the government's ridiculous security measures but not enough staff or equipment to do the job properly. BAA are more interested in selling perfume and cheap booze than getting you on a plane.
- Nobby Clark, London
This can only be good news, it took me 2 hours of queueing to get through passport control at Gatwick when I went to the Maldives earlier this year.
- Pa, London
