BAA was ordered to sell one of either Glasgow or Edinburgh airports – two of its extensive portfolio of airports judged to be anti-competitive to the disadvantage of the travelling public.
After much stalling and a repetition of the instruction to sell, BAA has now opted to sell Edinburgh.
It has been thought more likely to sell Glasgow, with an interesting Manchester consortium origin ally quick to express an interest in that operation.
Given that BAA enjoys its monopolistic status and has not yet obeyed instructions to sell Stansted, the choice of Edinburgh is likely to be strategic, designed to evoke vocal support close to the seat of Scottish Government – in the hope that this may weigh in their favour.
Given the population volumes in the Glasgow radius, that airport may well have the strongest business case for retention – but it is likely that BAA is game playing in the hope of retaining both airports.
It would be strongly against Scotland’s interests that it should do so.
Since when was Edinburgh in Argyll?
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For Webcraft: But, with Glasgow on the doorstep, its in Argyll’s interests that Glasgow has the best possible airport – which is not be BAA, famous for treating air travellers lke flying cattle.
Have you seen a Boeing 747 payload at the other end of the scanners, with a handful of available seats, all – many elderly – trying to get their shoes on again while standing on one leg and managing their hand baggage at the same time?
That’s very BAA.
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BAA is selling Edinburgh because, as Scotland’s busiest airport, it’s worth more money to them and right now they need it to plough into their Heathrow favourite. BAA also realised that there was always going to be a longer list of purchasers for Edinburgh than there would be for the far weaker performing Glasgow Airport. The population argument here is misleading. Glasgow may be the larger city but Edinburgh has the larger market for air travel because of the huge numbers of inbound visitors and the stronger demand for business travel. I don’t think today’s announcement is surprising at all.
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For Andrew: Happily accepting your argument about the stronger as opposed to the larger market – would BAA not want to keep the stronger earner?
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Newsroom, I honestly don’t think BAA has any great emotional attachment to any of its three airports in Scotland. I think they would happily sell all three if it raises the money they need to invest in the only airport they are truly concerned with: London Heathrow. A sale of Edinburgh will earn them more in the short term, and they can easily put Glasgow up for sale in a few years time and use the proceeds from both to boost their position at Heathrow.
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For Andrew: This makes a lot of sense – but why did they not sell Edinburgh much sooner – as instructed, when the bidding would, presumably, have been better?
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Newsroom, I imagine because it’s taken them some time to build Edinburgh Airport up into the valuable asset it is today, and by repeatedly contesting the decision in the courts they have been deliberately delaying things in order to ensure they can sell at the right price. Their greatest concern throughout, though, has been to delay the sale of Stansted Airport, which they will no doubt expect to make even more money from in a few years time.
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For Andrew: How much longer can they delay delay on Stansted?
we are aware of the pragmatic and less than adequate upgrade job they did at Glasgow Airport which disrupted the spatial and functional flows across the airport. This was done following the instruction by the competition commission to sell one of the two Scottish central belt airports.What this ‘upgrade’ did was to introduce, after the security scanners, a dangerously steep short stair for people carrying cabin baggage – delivering them on to a floor slippery for leather soled shoes.
The single purpose of this upgrade was to conduct all air travellers directly into the major airport ‘duty free’ retail outlet at the earliest opportunity. The pathways through this area are also obstructed by product displays, requiring swerves with wheeled bags.
Did they do a more sophisticated and better judged job at Edinburgh (which we’ve not used recently)?
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