Ryanair welcomes BAA decision

Ryanair was quick to respond to today's news that the BAA had reached an agreement to sell London's Gatwick Airport for £1.5bn. Reacting to the news the airline tempered it's enthusiasm by saying that it recognized the sale of Gatwick as the first step in the breakup of the BAA monopoly, urging the full recommendations of the UK Competition Commission be implemented whereby Stansted and a Scottish Airport would also be sold.
The carrier also called for the breakup of the DAA (Dublin Airport authority) which owns and manages Dublin, Cork and Shannon Airports, forecasting that Dublin will lose 2m passengers this year with Cork and Shannon losing a combined 1m. Against this backdrop, Ryanair will grow by 9m passengers this year. "Even Aer Lingus is growing traffic in the current recession, while the DAA monopoly is losing millions of passengers and thousands of jobs", it added.

 

Ryanair to support Competition Commission

Ryanair will make a representation in support of the UK Competition Commission when a 4 day hearing opens in the UK on October 19. The date of the hearing of an appeal by airport operator BAA against a ruling forcing it to sell Gatwick, Stansted and Edinburgh or Glasgow, in that order, was set by the Competition Appeal Tribunal today.

The ruling forcing the sale of the three airports was made in December of last year but the BAA is contending the ruling on the basis of bias and the fact that the decision did not take into consideration of the tough economic climate. BAA has claimed that one member of the Competition Commission panel was independent enough to participate in a ruling on the breakup of BAA's holdings.