BAA response to Supreme Court decision

In March 2009 the Competition Commission (“CC”) published its final decision in relation to its investigation into the supply of UK airport services by BAA. The key structural remedy called for the disposal of Stansted and one of either Edinburgh or Glasgow Airports.

In December 2009, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”) upheld BAA’s appeal against the CC’s decision. The CC successfully appealed to the Court of Appeal (“CoA”), which in October 2010 overturned the CAT’s decision, upholding two of the five grounds argued by the CC. In November 2010, BAA sought permission from the Supreme Court to appeal the CoA’s decision. BAA has today been informed that this permission has not been granted.

A BAA spokesperson said: “We are disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear our appeal. We continue to make the case to the Competition Commission that the circumstances in which they found reason to force the sale of airports have changed significantly since early 2009 and should certainly be reviewed in the light of the Government’s policy to rule out new runway capacity in the South East of England.”