BAA may be forced to sell 3 of airports; two of those should be in south east (Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted). It currently owns seven airports in the UK and the Competition Commission has concerns over it dominance of the market. But will it make any difference to the public.
Heathrow is a major European hub and is business is mainly long haul coupled with national airlines to major European cites it does very little budget routes mainly because budget airlines cannot afford the fees at Heathrow.
Stansted is all budget airlines, what long haul it did have (America Airways to the USA) have been suspended due to the credit crunch.
Gatwick is a mixture of, long haul, short haul and budget airlines. But Stansted is out on its own with only Luton providing any competition of the London airports in the budget airline business. Gatwick’s competition to Heathrow is only minimal at best and would require massive investment if was to provide serious competition.
So forcing Heathrow to sell two of its airports in the capital would do little to improve competition, what it would do however, would provide BAA and any other organisation with the excuse to expand to southern airports, perhaps this is the way the Government plans to expand our airports. It seems to be losing the argument at the moment on expansion and this would give them the perfect opportunity to expand.
