BAA to sell Stansted Airport after dropping legal appeal
Airport operator BAA today said it would proceed with the sale of London’s Stansted airport after deciding not to challenge a Competition Commission (CC) ruling forcing it to sell the airport.
BAA’s challenge to the CC ruling was rejected by the Court of Appeal last month and it was expected to take the case to the Supreme Court.
“Having carefully considered the Court of Appeal’s recent ruling, BAA has decided not to appeal to the Supreme Court and is now proceeding with the sale of Stansted airport,” BAA
said in a statement.
The sale of Stansted, which handled 18 million passengers last year, is part of a drive by Britain’s competition regulator to loosen BAA’s grip on the UK airports market.
Single runway Stansted, which is predominantly a low-cost leisure and holiday airport, is based 50 kilometres northeast of central London and is the fourth busiest airport in the UK.
Spain’s Ferrovial is BAA’s largest shareholder with a 40 per cent stake and heads an ownership consortium made up of Qatar Holding, GIC Special Investments, Alinda Capital Partners and Britania Airport Partners.