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Easy bourse - NEWS: Ryanair Calls On UK OFT To Break BAA Airport Monopoly
Thursday August 24th, 2006 / 14h31


Edited Press Release
LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Ryanair, the low-cost passenger airline, Thursday called on the U.K. Office of Fair Trading, or OFT, to recommend in its report to the Competition Commission the break-up of the BAA monopoly.
Ryanair was responding to an OFT study on the U.K. Airports market.
In its submission, Ryanair cited numerous abuses by the BAA in Stansted, which the CAA as regulator of the BAA airports has failed to address.
BAA's abuse of its dominance in the London airports has led to the development of inefficient, gold plated airport facilities and unnecessarily high prices for consumers, Ryanair said.
Ryanair's Head of Regulatory Affairs and Company Secretary, Jim Callaghan, said: "Ryanair has long called for the break up of the BAA airport monopoly, which is seriously damaging the competitiveness of the U.K. air transport market. BAA controls over 90% of London airport capacity and also dominates the Scottish airports market."
"We have detailed a number of abuses by the BAA that would justify a reference by the OFT to the Competition Commission and are calling on the OFT to recommend a break up of this monopoly as the most effective means of introducing competition into this important market", Callaghan said.