Ryanair's reaction to BAA appeal on Monopoly break-up
21-Dec-2009 Ryanair today (21 Dec 2009) said it was deeply disappointed by the decision of the Competition Appeals Tribunal to allow part of the appeal by the BAA monopoly that there might have been the appearance of possible bias in relation to an advisor to the Greater Manchester Pension Fund which is a shareholder in the Manchester Airport Group which formed part of the consortium which bought Gatwick Airport.
Ryanair is worried that this finding will allow the BAA monopoly to further delay the sale of Stansted Airport. The sale of Stansted Airport has the support of the overwhelming majority of airline users and passengers at Stansted, where high costs and the inefficient facilities delivered by the BAA monopoly has caused substantial declines in traffic over the past two years.
Ryanair welcomed the Tribunal's findings on the substantive elements of the BAA's appeal, in which they dismissed the BAA's claims that the Competition Commission did not take the timing of divestiture into account. Ryanair also welcomed the fact that the Tribunal did not conclude that the Competition Commission's decision to break up the BAA monopoly was wrong. Ryanair continues to campaign for the urgent break up of the high cost, inefficient, badly run BAA airport monopoly.
Speaking this morning, Ryanair's Michael O'Leary said: "The substantive finding in today's decision was the Tribunal's decision to dismiss the BAA's claims that the Competition Commission did not take the timing of the BAA break up into account. There is therefore no reason why the break up of the BAA and the early sale of Stansted and one of the Scottish airports cannot proceed.
"While we are disappointed that the Tribunal found that there may have been an appearance of bias as a result of Professor Moizer's role as an advisor to one of the shareholders of Manchester Airport, the fact that this may have affected only the sale of Gatwick Airport - which has now been sold - should not in any way delay the early sale of Stansted or one of the Scottish airports, if competition is to deliver lower costs and improved airport facilities for airlines and consumers in Britain.
"Ryanair calls again on the BAA, and the Competition Commission to agree remedies relating to Prof. Moizer's involvement with the purchaser of Gatwick Airport and then move quickly to progress the sale of Stansted and one of the Scottish airports in order to speed up the introduction of competition, lower costs and service improvements for airlines and consumers at Stansted and the Scottish airports.