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Gatwick sale must be first step in BAA break-up

Direct News Source

21-Oct-2009 Ryanair today (21st Oct) welcomed the sale of London Gatwick as the first step in the much needed break up of the BAA airport monopoly, and restoring competition and customer service to the airport sector in London.

Ryanair is today presenting its case to the Competition Appeal Tribunal calling for the further break up of the BAA monopoly and the early sale of London Stansted and one of the BAA's Scottish airports, as recommended by the UK Competition Commission in order to reverse the many years of damage done to UK transport and tourism by the BAA monopoly's high costs and its contempt for airline users and passengers.

Ryanair will be drawing the Competition Appeal Tribunal's attention to the way in which the BAA monopoly has abused its power in recent years by wasting vast sums building complicated facilities that its airline customers neither wanted nor needed. Ryanair will also be showing how the BAA monopoly used these inflated costs, to engage in regulatory gaming so that an inept regulator (the CAA) would regularly allow passenger charges to rise to pay for BAA waste, mismanagement, and incompetence.

Ryanair's Michael O'Leary said today:

"It is vital for the future of Britain's air transport and tourism industries that the high cost, inefficient BAA monopoly be broken up as recommended by the Competition Commission report. The Competition Commission's extensive investigation has revealed that the airport monopoly has been bad for competition and bad for consumers. It also conclusively proved that the CAA is a well meaning, but hopelessly incompetent regulator which has always put the needs of the BAA monopoly above those of airport users.

"The future of British air transport and tourism depends on the growth of low fare air travel to/from the London airports. Regional airports all over the UK are now lowering costs to attract more low fare routes and tourists. The BAA monopoly couldn't care less, because they are rewarded by the CAA regardless of whether traffic rises or falls.

"Over the past year Ryanair has made a written offer to BAA Stansted to double its traffic over the 5 year period. The BAA monopoly rejected this traffic growth proposal out of hand, because they don't need or want traffic growth. Harry Bush and the other clowns in the CAA will reward BAA Stansted with passenger charge increases as Stansted's traffic declines. Unlike the real world, the BAA monopoly is rewarded with price increases to compensate it for its failure to stimulate growth.

"This is why Ryanair and all other airlines at Stansted are strongly campaigning for the break up of the BAA monopoly, because competition is the only way to ensure that competition and the consumer interest is protected from the damage inflicted by years of the high cost BAA monopoly".