BAA Puts Gatwick On The Market

[Spike]

[glow=black]Airports operator BAA has announced it is putting Gatwick airport up for sale[/glow]

The move comes a month after the Competition Commission recommended BAA sell two of its three London airports.

Virgin Atlantic immediately expressed an interest, saying it would be happy to join a bidding consortium.
Chief Executive Steve Ridgway said: "We are delighted that BAA has ended the uncertainty over Gatwick's future. Virgin Atlantic would relish the opportunity to bid for Gatwick as part of a consortium and inject our customer service expertise into any future running of the airport."

[glow=black]Analysts say the likely asking price for Gatwick will be more than £2bn.[/glow]

The owner of Heathrow, Stansted and Scotland's three biggest airports said it was beginning the sale process "immediately" and that customers, staff and businesses would benefit from the decision.

BAA chief executive Colin Matthews said: "Gatwick has long been an important and valuable part of BAA and the decision to sell was not taken lightly."

[glow=black]Gatwick is the busiest single-runway airport in the world, hosting 80 airlines and managing 262,000 air transport movements per year.[/glow]

It employs more than 25,000 people - around 2,400 of whom work for BAA.

The Competition Commission said in April: "BAA dominates the airports market in the South East of England and in lowland Scotland, both areas of high economic activity and importance.
"Currently, there is no competition between BAA's three London airports
(Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted) and only very limited competition from non-BAA airports (including London City and Luton)."

BAA is owned by Spanish giant Ferrovial, which bought the firm in 2006.[glow=black][/glow]