Ryanair has withdrawn from the sale process of Stansted Airport.
The airline had expressed an interest in taking a 25% stake in the airport.
But Ryanair said it has now been advised that BAA Stansted’s owner, Ferrovial, will exclude Ryanair from the sale process.
"Since Ryanair does not wish to prejudice other potential investors in Stansted, it has written to all investors/consortia it has held discussions with to advise them that Ryanair will not participate in the sale process or seek a minority stake," said the airline.
Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara added: "While we fully accept that Ferrovial is entirely free not to sell to Ryanair, we fail to understand how it can comply with competition law if Stansted’s biggest customer, accounting for 70% of the traffic, is excluded from this sale process.
"This year’s continuing traffic decline underlines the extraordinary damage done to Stansted airlines and passengers by the Ferrovial/BAA airport monopoly and we look forward to discussing cost reductions and traffic growth with the new owners of Stansted when it is finally sold.
"The only way Stansted’s traffic decline can be reversed is if its uncompetitive charges are significantly reduced, initially by reversing the disastrous 100% price increase imposed by the BAA monopoly at Stansted in 2007."
Neither BAA or Stansted Airport would comment .
UK competition authorities would have blocked the airline from taking any more than a 25% stake in the airport and could even have objected to a smaller shareholding, reports the Financial Times.
But it says analysts argue any buyer of Stansted would eventually need to work with Ryanair to achieve growth at a facility that has seen traffic figures fall by a quarter in the past five years.
Ferrovial is being forced to sell Stansted Airport by the European Commission.
The £1bn deal has already attracted interest from Manchester Airports Group, other airport groups and investment consortiums.
by Bev Fearis
