BAA wins appeal against airport sale order

BAA has won its appeal against the ruling from the Competition Commission (CC) that it must sell off three of its seven airports.

The operator took its case to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) after the CC ruled in March that the firm had to sell Gatwick Airport, Stansted Airport and either Glasgow Airport or Edinburgh Airport.

It was announced today (21 December) that BAA had been successful in its appeal, with the CAT ruling that the Commission had shown "apparent bias" when reaching its decision.

The Spanish-owned airports operator released a statement saying: "We are pleased that the Competition Appeal Tribunal upheld our appeal on the grounds of apparent bias.

"Further discussions should now take place with the Competition Commission, as the CAT suggests, to determine the appropriate response to this judgement."

BAA has already agreed terms on the sale of London Gatwick to Global Infrastructure Partners, the group that owns London City Airport.

It was announced earlier this month that BAA's UK airports handled 9.9 million passengers in November, marking the first time that the bases have recorded a collective year-on-year increase in traffic since March 2008.

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