"Airline backs BAA break-up"

Tuesday, July 22, 2003

Airline backs BAA break-up
Budget firm easyJet joins call for e nd to airport monopoly in Scotland 
By David Leask
United Kingdom - The Glasgow Evening Times


BUDGET airline easyJet has joined calls for the break-up of the company that
owns Glasgow Airport.

The no-frills giant echoed demands made by MPs last week for BAA to release
its stranglehold over the UK's biggest airports.

It said BAA's monopoly was most serious in Scotland, where it owns all three
main airports, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

EasyJet - along with British Airways - is one of BAA's two biggest customers
in Scotland, operating flights from all three BAA airports.

But early this year it put expansion plans at Glasgow and Edinburgh airports
on hold, citing high landing charges.

The airline launched flights to Barcelona, Paris and Prague from Newcastle
Airport instead of Glasgow, as revealed by the Evening Times.

Now it has said BAA has too much power over Scotland's airports.

The Commons Transport Committee said last week it believed BAA's monopoly
should be broken up, highlighting the company's ownership of airports in and
around London, where landing charges are strictly regulated, as well as
Scotland, where they are not.

But MPs did not make any specific recommendation for Scotland's big three
airports.

EasyJet, however, said: ''Rather than limiting attention to the London
airports, easyJet also believes the situation is even more serious in
Scotland where BAA controls the three major airports, but without even
economic regulation to ensure costs are kept at a reasonable level.''

And its chief executive, Ray Webster, added: ''We have long been concerned
about the disparity in charges between those airports which operate in a
truly competitive market and those that exert monopoly control.''

A spokesman for BAA's Scottish division said: ''EasyJet has developed a
strong base in Scotland with our full support.

''We have offered them some fantastic deals to develop international routes.

''And we strongly disagree that BAA's ownership has been bad for Scottish
airports.''

Anniesland MP John Robertson, writing in the Evening Times last week, said
the time had come for BAA to give up ownership of either Glasgow or
Edinburgh airports.

But easyJet, which flies from Glasgow to Amsterdam, Stansted, Luton, East
Midlands, Bristol and Belfast, has also come under fire for letting down
Scots passengers.

SNP transport spokesman Kenny MacAskill has accused the firm of focusing too
much on ferrying Scots travellers to its London bases and not on developing
direct international routes.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dc/dcboard.php

*****************************************