Ryanair join BAA fees spat, challenging Stansted price increase
16.04.08
Ryanair is joining the queue of airlines seeking judicial review proceedings against BAA over increased fees at London airports - this time at Stansted. Yesterday budget rival easyJet said that it would challenge the price rise at Gatwick, whilst bmi made a similar statement about Heathrow at the weekend. Like easyJet yesterday, Ryanair says it will withhold part of its airport fees until the proceedings are completed.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the UK airports regulator, released the results of a pricing review last month that allowed BAA to increase its charges to airlines at Heathrow and Gatwick from April 1. Charges at Gatwick were increased by 21%.
The CAA has yet to issue a pricing review for Stansted, but BAA increased its fees at the airport by 7% at the beginning of this month under the previous pricing regime. The proposed increase comes on top of a 100% increase in passenger charges in April 2007, the airline said.
Ryanair, this biggest airline at Stansted, said today that it has written to BAA objecting to the increase, and is still awaiting a response. The budget airline said in a statement: ‘If BAA Stansted continues to abuse it’s monopoly power by imposing these maximum allowed price increases, then Ryanair will launch judicial review proceedings and it will withhold these latest increases (putting them in an escrow account) until the outcome of its judicial review proceedings at Stansted.'
Michael O'Leary, Ryanair chief executive, added in his usual understated style: ‘T5 doesn't work, Stansted doesn't work, the BAA airport monopoly doesn't work in the interests of consumers, and it's now time that the Competition Commission and the Government broke up this foreign-owned, failed, anti-consumer monopoly, and got rid of the incompetent CAA.’
A BAA spokesman said that it would continue to charge the new fees, approved by the CAA, and that if money was withheld it would consider taking action. He added that the company did not accept that the airlines had a valid complaint.
bmi, easyJet, Ryanair and Virgin Atlantic issued an unprecedented joint statement last month saying: ‘These [airport charge] increases follow a substantial increase in charges at Heathrow and Gatwick in the past five years and a doubling of charges at Stansted in the last year.’ It looks like the latest moves are coordinated too, so now all we have to do is wait for Virgin to join the bun fight.
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