BAA in airport appeal

AIRPORT operator BAA last night revealed it will appeal the decision by the Competition Commission to make it sell three of its airports, including either Edinburgh or Glasgow.

The commission ruled recently that BAA's ownership of seven UK airports was anti- competitive. It said that Spanish-owned BAA must sell Gatwick and Stansted as well one of its Central Belt airports.

BAA had decided to sell Gatwick in West Sussex and said last night that sale process was continuing. But BAA said it was applying to the Competition Appeal Tribunal to review the commission's report on two grounds.

The first centred on "apparent bias" in the commission's ruling. BAA claimed there was a link between a member of the commission panel and "an organisation interested in acquiring the airports that BAA is required to sell". It said it would also appeal on the grounds that the commission failed to take into account "the adverse financial impact of introducing competition".

That centred on "the requirement on BAA to sell three airports within two years in the current financial and economic circumstances".