House of Commons Transport Select Committee report on the future of BAA

This week BAA has lodged the first application for a new full-length runway in the South East of England since the Second World War, the runway at Stansted.

Yesterday BAA opened Terminal Five at Heathrow, a genuinely world-class facility. But this is only the beginning of how BAA intends to transform all of its airports, and BAA has committed to spend over £6bn over the next five years across all airports to help make that happen.

The question therefore for those like the Select Committee, who advocate breakup of BAA, is whether that would help or hinder that process of transformation.

BAA firmly believes that a break-up would only delay not just the much-needed investment, but also what the Government, and the committee itself in this latest report, have consistently identified as the overwhelming priority in the South East of England since the 2003 White Paper: the provision of extra runway and terminal capacity.

No other airport operator in this country has demonstrated willingness to deliver that capacity and, in fact, proposed investments at non-BAA airports have either been postponed or cancelled completely.

Further information from:

Malcolm Robertson, BAA Limited, 07788 567680
Andrew Mitchell, Finsbury, 0207 251 3801