eCargonewsAsia: Management changes after BAA takeover

eCargonewsAsia: Management changes after BAA takeover: "BAA has announced its first senior management changes since the UK airports group was recently acquired by an international consortium. It has also confirmed plans to continue with two previously-announced airport expansion projects.

In a separate potentially significant development on the UK airports scene, the country's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has decided to go ahead with a study of the overall market to see whether it warrants an investigation by the national competition commission.

BAA, whose portfolio of seven UK airports includes that country's major international gateway for Asian and other international air cargo traffic, London Heathrow, was officially taken over by Airport Development and Investment (ADI), a consortium led by Spanish construction and infrastructure group Ferrovial, at the end of June.

Two weeks later, BAA announced that it had appointed existing board member Stephen Nelson as its new chief exec-utive with immediate effect. He succeeded Mike Clasper who will continue to act as an adviser to the company for the next year.


The group also made Heathrow managing director Tony Douglas chief executive officer for that airport and a member of the board. In addition, the managing director of Ferrovial Aeropuertos, Luis S�nchez Salmer�n, was appointed deputy chief executive of BAA to act as an 'interface' between the UK group and its new shareholders.

On the airport development front, ADI announced this month that BAA would continue with plans to construct a second runway at London Stansted, now the number two London air cargo hub behind Heathrow with an annual throughput of over 236,000 tonnes and the UK gateway for British Airways' scheduled B747 freighter services from Hong Kong, mainland China and Ind"