Freight Transport

Ryanair lashed out yesterday at the Competition Appeal Tribunal's order that the Competition Commission's decisions in its report of March 19th, 2009 relating to the common ownership of airports, be repealed Sharon Gill reports

The Competition Appeal Tribunal also ordered that the matter be referred back to the Commission for reconsideration, but that this referral will not take effect until the conclusion of any appeal

The order refers to the Competition Commission's ruling that required BAA to sell three of its airports

The Competition Appeal Tribunal also decided that the Competition Commission's and Ryanair's requests for permission to appeal be refused However, the Competition Commission may still seek permission to appeal directly from the Court of Appeal

As expected, Ryanair has condemned the Tribunal's decision, saying is based on a finding that there might have been an appearance of bias in relation to one of the six members of the Commission

"As a result of this decision, the sale of Stansted and one of the BAA's Scottish airports will now be delayed for a minimum period of two years, with the result that traffic at Stansted Airport will continue to decline, as consumers suffer squalid and inefficient terminal facilities and continue to be victimised by the BAA monopoly's high charges," said Ryanair

Ryanair believes that a sensible and practical outcome to any finding of an appearance of bias in this case would be for Manchester Airport Group to be prohibited from bidding for Stansted and/or one of the BAA's Scottish airports

According to Ryanair, the sale of Gatwick Airport to Global Infrastructure Partners has already resulted in the airport introducing some limited element of competition to Heathrow and Stansted, with improved facilities and lower charges to attract new routes and new traffic to the South East of London

"The original Competition Commission decision to order the break-up of the BAA airport monopoly was welcomed by the entire airline industry, passengers and the national media," commented Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary "As traffic continues to decline at Stansted, and airlines and passengers continue to suffer high charges and badly run facilities, we again call on the BAA monopoly to sell Stansted Airport in order to introduce much needed competition in the London airport market, or alternatively for theCourt of Appeal to overturn the Tribunal's ruling andbring forward the break-up of the high-cost, inefficient and anti-consumer BAA airport monopoly in the interests of competition and a better deal for British consumers, passengers and tourism"