BAA Sells Gatwick to Owners of London City Airport

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  • Anonymous
    Guest

    VintageKrug
    Participant

    BAA today announces that it has agreed to sell its 100% interest in Gatwick Airport Limited to an entity controlled by Global Infrastructure Partners for £1.51 billion, slightly under the regulated asset base for the airport, and full payment subject to conditions.

    GIP is the majority stakeholder in LCY.

    Story here:

    http://tinyurl.com/yf8qeh7

    What is more interesting is that the £1.51 billion is dependent on passenger numbers being achieved over a set period of years; this will hasten the LCC-isation of the airport.

    Another way to drive passenger throughput would be to increase the capacity of the runways at Gatwick.

    It is not commonly known that Gatwick actually has two runways; they are parallel and not certified for concurrent use as the “second” runway is too close to the taxiway.

    However, the point was made that, as there is already a second runway in existence a full planning enquiry would not be required to “move” the current second runway further from the taxiway in order to make it viable.

    The second runway is primarily used as a taxiway, with occasional use when the main runway is undergoing repairs.


    JordanD
    Participant

    There is a certain irony that BAA have been forced by the competition commission to sell two of their three London airports (reducing their ownership to one) whilst on the other GIP now own (or will shortly own) two airports in the London area. Anyone fancy taking it to the competition commission!

    (I do of course realise LCY & LGW are very different marketplaces/share of the market compared with LGW/LHR/STN).


    VintageKrug
    Participant

    I hope the new owners will invest in Gatwick; it is much sullied by its reputation as a charter airport, but actually has significantly better connections to the City than LHR.

    Were it to become a Skyteam or Star hub, I think it would do very well indeed.

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