Competition Commission tells BAA to sell Edinburgh or Glasgow Airport

Aug 20 2008

Consultation will decide which is to be sold

THE Comeptition Commission has said BAA should lose control of one of Scotland's busiest airports.

The body recommended Spanish-owned BAA sell eitherEdinburgh or Glasgow airport plus two of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.

The investigation found there were competitionproblems at each of BAA's seven UK airports which was having an adverse affect on airlines and passengers.

Christopher Clarke, chairman of the CC's BAA airports inquiry group,said: "While we accept that constraints on runway capacity in the southeast will limit the scope for the benefits of competition in theshort-term, we believe separate owners would be more active than BAA in exploiting existing opportunities.

"In Scotland, where there are no similar capacity constraints, we believe separate owners of Edinburgh and Glasgow would similarly improve their offerings.

"In Scotland, BAA has until recently been noticeably slowto develop new routes at Glasgow and Edinburgh, while at Aberdeen, its investment plans are regarded as unambitious despite relatively highlevels of profitability."

However BAA Scotland said it was "disappointed" with the findings and described the process as "flawed."