Stansted sale ‘will delay expansion’
20.03.09
The £2.7 billion plan for a new runway and terminal at Stansted Airport will be delayed for several years and may be abandoned after the Competition Commission decided to force BAA to sell the airport, the Times suggests. Anti-expansion campaign groups have made similar predictions.
A decision announced yesterday by the Competition Commission will force BAA to sell Gatwick, Stansted and either Glasgow or Edinburgh. The sales will be made in that order and must be completed by March 2011. The Gatwick sale is under way and is scheduled to be completed this summer.
BAA will keep Heathrow and is likely to accelerate plans for a third runway and a sixth terminal there, the newspaper suggests. However, the Commission said that this new terminal could be built and operated by a separate company, introducing within Heathrow an element of competition that would improve standards.
In its report, the Commission said that it would be difficult for BAA to take part in a public inquiry into Stansted expansion because it would be unable to answer questions about its long-term commitments. This means that the inquiry, already postponed once, is unlikely to start before the new owner takes control towards the end of next year.
The Times points out that passenger demand at Stansted has fallen by 20 percent in the past two years, and suggest that it will be much easier for the new owner of Gatwick to make a business case for another runway. A legal agreement prohibits the start of construction of a new runway at Gatwick until 2019, but the bidders are considering rapid expansion from that year.
The Commission’s report adds: ‘The Department for Transport should give due consideration to the ambitions of the new owner of Gatwick, including the possibility of a second runway at Gatwick after 2019.’
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