Call to end BAA's airports monopoly

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Spanish-owned BAA, whose UK airports include Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, had "failed to plan adequately for contingencies which were far from unexpected", a report from the House of Commons Transport Committee said.

Heathrow had lost its popularity and it was "regrettable that BAA ever allowed the position to get as bad as it did", the committee added.

Competition was being "stifled by common ownership of several major airports", with the natural development of the market being "held back", the report said.

What was good for BAA was "not necessarily good for aviation" and there was "much to be gained from a state of affairs where BAA did not enjoy such substantial market power", the report added.

The committee said it supported Government proposals to expand Heathrow - plans that could lead to a third runway and a sixth terminal.

"It is clear that a chronic shortage of capacity is hindering Heathrow's ability to provide the sort of service to which it should aspire," the report said.

The MPs went on: "We feel there is room for more competition (especially between BAA's London airports) and that ending the current situation of common ownership would go a long way to realising this."

The report added: "BAA may feel as though it is taking a lot of the flak for things that are not part of its day-to-day responsibility, but this does not detract from the serious questions raised over mismanagement of resources and failure to plan adequately for contingencies which were far from unexpected, let alone inconceivable.

"With the ever-present possibility of extraordinary circumstances such as strikes or terrorist incidents, queues at airports are almost inevitable from time to time. Our criticism of BAA is that it should have predicted the predictable and planned accordingly."