Stansted in sale call
BUDGET airline Ryanair yesterday called for the early sale of Stansted Airport after passenger numbers plummeted a dramatic 18.5 per cent last month compared with the previous year.
Stansted in Essex was the weakest link as Spanish-owned operator BAA announced a drop in passenger traffic of 7.3 per cent across its UK airports.
The Competition Commission wants to break BAA’s monopoly by forcing it to offload Stansted, Gatwick and either Glasgow or Edinburgh airports.
Ryanair said the figures show “that the Competition Commission’s recommendation that the airport be sold is the only way to protect London tourism and jobs and we call for the fast-tracking of its sale in order to tackle the airport’s plummeting traffic”.
BAA said the downturn was due to some airlines cutting capacity in response to the “difficult economic conditions”.
BAA, which handled a total of 11.8 million passengers in May, said the 3.9 per cent decline at Heathrow demonstrated its resilience and importance.
Gatwick improved on recent trends with a 6.5 per cent fall.