www.gatwickairport.com

Earlier this year, the British Airports Authority (BAA) was ordered that it must sell off some of its airports in order to break up its monopoly. Among the airports that had to be sold, Gatwick Airport was one of them. Now this airport is being auctioned off, and it looks like it may fetch as little as £1.3 billion. The BAA was hoping that the airport would pull in £2 billion at the least.

The report that was done on Gatwick Airport last year showed that it was worth £1.33billion and £1.73billion as of last December. Now, due to the slump in traffic, the airport could even go down further in price. However, the BAA has been told to give the three potential buyers of the airport another month. This should help them get their finances in order. The three major companies that are looking into buying the airport are Global Infrastructure Partners, Lysander Investment Group, and the owner of London City Airport. 3I Infrastructure and Babcock and Brown have already been pushed out of the bidding.

This long anticipated break up of the BAA monopoly is being done to hopefully improve customer flying experiences. Of course, it is also being done to break up the monopoly over the busiest airports in Britain.

Although companies are already looking into buying the airport, the BAA could still appeal the ruling if they want to. The BAA says that they may have to appeal if they feel that it is not practical, and so far the price that they want has yet to be reached.

For more information, visit: www.gatwickairport.com