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BAA under fire
BAA has fiercely criticised the Transport Select Committee report on aviation which calls for the operator’s monopoly in the south east to be broken, describing it as “naive and full of self contradictions.”
The cross party committee has accused the operator of deliberately restricting growth in the south east for its own ends. BAA controls Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports and accounts for 93% of all airport passengers in the south east of England.
The MPs called into question BAA’s motives for originally stating that an extra runway at Heathrow would be unacceptable for environmental reasons, saying its argument had been either “culpably short-sighted” or else “wilfully misleading” .
The committee added: “It is ineffective and inappropriate to have a single operator controlling such a large part of our aviation infrastructure. The Government must not assume that extra capacity in the south-east should be provided by BAA. In our view it would be more appropriate to break up its monopoly.”
But BAA has hit back, saying that if it was broken up it would be much harder to raise the huge investment sums needed to build new airport facilities in the south east. Chief executive Mike Clasper said: “As the MPs admit, the burden for this funding would fall firmly on the tax payer. With Britain’s ground transportation system already creaking through lack of investment, this thinking is perverse.”
Mr Clasper added: “The Committee last called for the break up of BAA in 1998 and was dismissed by the Government then. Judging by the quality of its arguments today it will be ignored again”.
But willingness to tackle BAA seems to be growing. Airlines have become increasingly frustrated by its high charges – the operator is increasing its landing fees at Heathrow by 40% over the next five years to help pay for Terminal 5 at Heathrow.
The Government’s aviation White Paper – due out at the end of this year – will say where UK airport expansion should take place.
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