Competition chiefs check on bidders for Gatwick
they are suitable candidates to run the UK’s second-busiest airport.
Court action today in an attempt to block price increases at the airport.
the running. These are: Global Infrastructure Partners, which owns London City
Airport; Lysander Investment Group, which includes Citigroup and Vancouver Airports;
and Manchester Airport Group in partnership with Borealis, a Canadian pension
fund.
Gatwick must meet and it is assessing the worthiness of each contender. Any consortium
deemed to have insufficient funds or experience running an airport will be blocked
from submitting a final bid. Those bids are due by the end of April.
order from the Competition Commission to dispose of it. The commission is expected
to say on Thursday that BAA’s monopoly ownership of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted
has been bad for passengers and airlines. It is expected to demand the sale of
Gatwick, Stansted and either Edinburgh or Glasgow to introduce more competition
into the UK’s airport market.
3i Infrastructure and Babcock & Brown all pulled out of bidding.
charges imposed by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). At a four-day hearing in
the High Court in London, easyJet will accuse the aviation watchdog of failing
to follow due process by favouring BAA at the expense of commercial airlines in
pricing negotiations.
per passenger to £6.79 per passenger in March last year. The charges will rise
to £7.34 plus inflation per passenger by 2013.
pricing and it could force the aviation watchdog to open a fresh round of talks.
Under normal circumstances pricing levels are set every five years.
has hired Michael Beloff, QC, one of Britain’s highest-paid barristers and a former
president of Trinity College, Oxford, to argue its case. A ruling is expected
within eight weeks.