BAA has found an unlikely ally in its battle against regulators, after British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh said breaking up the UK airports operator would make no difference to competition for airline customers, the Mail reports.
Mr Walsh is CEO of BAA's biggest customer and has frequently criticised the airport owner's poor service standards, particularly at Heathrow. However, the newspaper reports that he believes breaking up BAA is not the answer to turning around its poor performance. Instead, he says a radical overhaul of the economic regulation of Britain's airports, overseen by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), is required.
The Competition Commission, which is investigating BAA's monopoly ownership, recently indicated in preliminary findings that a break-up of the group may be called for. This was backed by the CAA last week.
Speaking while on a visit to Houston, Texas, Mr Walsh said: 'So what is going to happen if there is a new owner of Gatwick and we are not satisfied with what is going on with Heathrow? We are not going to just move,' pointing out that Heathrow is BA's main hub, and the gateway to some of the best links between Europe, Asia and the US. Moving such a complex operation to another base miles away would not be possible, he said.
Virgin Atlantic chief Steve Ridgway believes competition between different terminal owners within the same airport, like New York's JFK, would help to raise performance standards. Asked if this could work at Heathrow, Mr Walsh said: 'If we could own Terminal 5 (at Heathrow) that would be different, but it's something we should have done ten years ago.' |
