Court defeat for BAA over airport sell-off
A decision that could force airport operator BAA to comply with an order to sell three of its airports was restored by the Court of Appeal in the UK today.
The ruling has been welcomed by Ryanair Chief Executive Micheal O'Leary who said that a sale of Stansted and Glasgow airports would benefit travellers, and who also called for the Irish Government to break up the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) and sell off many of its assets.
Today's ruling by the UK appelate court follows a decision in March last year when the Competition Commission (CC) ruled that BAA must sell Gatwick and Stansted airports as well as one of either Glasgow or Edinburgh.
BAA however successfully appealed against this, with the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) finding last December that there was “apparent bias” in the CC’s ruling over Gatwick.
In turn, the CC went to the Court of Appeal in June to challenge the CAT decision.
Today, Lord Justice Maurice Kay, Lord Justice Jacob and Lord Justice Patten said that the CAT was wrong to find “apparent bias” and restored the Commission’s decision.
They refused BAA’s application to appeal to the Supreme Court, although the authority can renew its application direct.
Ryanair boss O'Leary welcomed the decision say the sale of Stansted and Glasgow airports would result in "a far better deal for airline users and passengers".
Mr O'Leary called on the Govt to follow the UK example and break up the 'monopoly' of the DAA.
He called for the Cork and Shannon airports to be sold, as well as Terminals 1 and 2 at Dublin airport and all 'non-core' DAA assets.
“We now have the most expensive airports in Europe, and a tourism industry facing two years of record traffic declines," Mr O'Leary said.
"The way forward has been shown by the Competition Commission in the UK.
"We must break up the DAA monopoly, and allow competition between airports and between terminals to deliver lower costs and better passenger service, as the DAA monopoly has failed miserably in recent years."
Spanish-owned BAA had already decided to sell Gatwick even before the March 2009 CC sell-off ruling which had followed a lengthy inquiry into UK airport ownership.
However, BAA was concerned that Professor Peter Mozier, one of the CC airports’ inquiry panel, had a connection to the Manchester Airport Group which had been interested in buying Gatwick.
In its ruling last December, the CAT agreed with BAA’s claim that Prof Mozier’s role meant there had been “apparent bias” in the sell-off decision.
The CAT said Prof Mozier was not actually biased “but that a fair-minded person would have concluded that there was a real possibility of bias”.
Gatwick was sold last year for £1.5bn (€1.7bn) to US-based investment fund Global Infrastructure Partners.
As well as running Stansted, Glasgow and Edinburgh airports, BAA also operates Heathrow, Southampton and Aberdeen airports.
