Well this has been coming for quite some time with BAA battling tooth and nail to hang onto Stansted Airport.
BAA has fought appeal and after appeal (and lost them all) from a decision in 2009 that BAA needed to sell the two of its London airports to promote competition, and has finally put STN on the sales block.
BAA was originally told to sell off Stansted, Gatwick and either Glasgow or Edinburgh airports.
So far it has disposed of Edinburgh Airport and Gatwick, whilst keeping Heathrow, Glasgow International, Aberdeen, and Southampton.
This left the stick matter of Stansted airport, which BAA have been appealing since 2009. There was one more chance of appeal at the Supreme Court, but BAA has decided not to appeal, and go for a sale.
BAA says:
“We still believe that the Competition Commission ruling fails to recognise that Stansted and Heathrow serve different markets”
Meanwhile Ryanair is in some delight with this move saying
“The BAA’s seven failed court appeals were nothing more than a blatant attempt to delay the sale while BAA and its Spanish owners, Ferrovial, fattened up its monopoly profits at the expense of airlines, passengers and British jobs“
It goes without saying Ryanair has long been a critic of the charges at Stansted airport, and blames BAA for a drop of 6 million fewer passengers in 2011 compared to 2007.
So who else is in the running for the future Stansted then?
- MAG (Manchester Airport Group) is first up in the early examinations.
- A sale like this is going to attract the big infrastructure companies too as they sniff around for good long term investments.
- Meanwhile Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) will probably not bid as this will create a completion issue that will replicate what has just gone on (they own Gatwick Airport and Edinburgh Airport).
This will be an interesting one to keep an eye on – least of all Stansted has a future to think about, and a future expansion plan that someone will have to carry forward…