BAA selling Gatwick Airport

Airport operator BAA is selling Gatwick Airport. The airport used by around 35 million passengers in 2007 is one of the busiest single-runway airports in the world.

Colin Matthews, BAA's chief executive, said, "Gatwick has long been an important and valuable part of BAA and the decision to sell was not taken lightly. We believe that the airport's customers, staff and business will benefit from the earliest possible resolution of current uncertainty."

While BAA has already begun the sale process of Gatwick, it has indicated that it will resist regulatory pressure to sell other airports in its portfolio. A month ago, the Competition Commission said BAA may have to sell three of its seven UK airports because of market dominance concerns.

"When the Competition Commission published its provisional findings, we said that we would be realistic in our response, though we disagree with the Commission's report and the analysis on which it is founded," said Mr Matthews. "We will continue to present our case, in respect of the South East airports and those in Scotland. At Stansted, we believe that a change of ownership would interfere with the process of securing planning approval for a second runway, which remains a key feature of Government air transport policy."

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