Plan for Stansted second runway slips back
half of the next decade at the earliest, it emerged on Tuesday.
from the Competition Commission to exclude the £2.3bn ($3.4bn) project at Stansted
from the price control regime for the next five years to March 2014.
work until a new price regime is introduced in six years.
Stansted against a background of "deteriorating economic and financial conditions".
Monthly traffic volumes at the UK’s third-largest airport have been falling year
on year for 12 months in succession.
would not be needed until 2017 at the earliest, two years later than proposed
by BAA.
and a second terminal. The inquiry could be derailed, however, by a change of
ownership of the airport. The commission is separately investigating the structure
of BAA and has provisionally recommended the break-up of the group’s airport monopolies
in London and Scotland, including the sale of Stansted. BAA has already started
the process to sell Gatwick.
levy on airlines – in real terms at Stansted for both 2009-10 and 2010-11. It
proposed small increases of 1.6 % above inflation in the subsequent three years,
taking the charge to £6.65 per passenger in 2013-14.
date on preparing for expansion at Stansted had thus been ruled out. "We will
continue to press for a regulatory framework which reflects the full cost of bringing
forward the second runway proposals at Stansted," it said.
charges and capital spending at the airport in check. "Keeping prices broadly
flat over the coming years should ensure consumers continue to be protected from
BAA’s worst monopolistic excesses," said EasyJet.
similar to those at Heathrow and Gatwick with financial penalties – up to 7% of
charges – if BAA failed to meet agreed standards.
FT