The Competition Commission said yesterday that the British Airports Authority should be made to sell two more of their airports in the United Kingdom, one in London along with Gatwick Airport and another in Scotland. Pending a final decision to occur in March, they believe that they should have to sell Gatwick Airport and Stansted Airport in London, as well as Edinburgh Airport in Scotland. They didn’t set a timetable for the sale of the properties as of yet.

Colin Matthews, the Chief Executive of the British Airports Authority, said that they will continue to fight the forced sale. The company is consortium-owned, which is lead by Grupo Ferrovial, a Spanish company. They will be permitted to keep the London Heathrow Airport, which is the busiest hub in Europe, as well as the Aberdeen Airport in Scotland and the Southampton Airport in England. However, the Competition Commission said that they are not sure what the future will hold for the company’s 7^th Glasgow Airport.

Matthews said that they don’t think that the Competition Commission set out evidence that was compelling enough in their decision for increasing competition. They will continue to be concerned that their proposed remedies could actually postpone introducing more runway capacity, he added.

Christopher Clarke, the one who chaired the inquiry by the airports, says that the most beneficial way to provide competition in England’s southeast and in the lowland of Scotland is to force these airports to be owned separately. Under the ownership of the British Airports Authority, he continued, there isn’t any competition, but with separate owners, airport operators will have more incentive to be much more responsive to customers, which include both passengers and airlines.

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