BAA'S ownership of seven UK airports may not be in the best interests of airlines or passengers, and it might have to sell one or more airports, Britain's Competition Commission said yesterday.
The commission said it would publish possible remedies in August, which could include ordering BAA to sell one or more airports.
BAA, part of Spain's Ferrovial since 2006, owns the three main airports serving London - Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted - as well as Scotland's Edinburgh and Glasgow airports.
The commission is investigating whether problems faced by airline travelers in Britain, as highlighted by the botched opening of Heathrow's Terminal 5, are caused or exacerbated by BAA's monopoly.
"There is no competition between BAA's three London airports, and only very limited competition from non-BAA airports (London City and Luton)," the inquiry's chairman, Christopher Clarke, said in an interim report. "Similarly, there is no competition between their two airports in lowland Scotland," he added.
BAA said it recognized the concerns of airlines, and was doing everything to address them, but said its ownership of the airports was in the best interests of passengers.
Virgin Atlantic welcomed the commission's statement and called for its findings to lead to a break-up.
Commission Chairman Clarke said areas of concern included "the apparent lack of responsiveness to the differing needs of its airline customers, and hence passengers" and BAA's approach to planning airport development.
"It (BAA) seems largely to have limited itself to one major project at a time, for example Terminal 5," he said.
Britain's biggest airline, British Airways, said that it would favor a less extreme strengthening of the regulatory framework rather than a break-up of BAA.