Essex: Ryanair withdraws from Stansted talks (From Braintree and Witham Times)

Essex: Ryanair withdraws from Stansted talks

4:10pm Thursday 11th October 2012 in News

Budget airline Ryanair has announced it is withdrawing its interest in buying a stake in Stansted Airport.

The decision comes after the airline accused Stansted’s owners of excluding Ryanair from the sales process.

Stansted’s owners BAA announced it would sell the airport in August after admitting defeat in a long-running battle with the Competition Commission.

BAA is controlled by the Spanish company Ferrovial, which is its majority shareholder.

Irish airline Ryanair, which is responsible for almost 70% of Stansted’s traffic, had been in discussions with several investors and consortia about a potential bid.

Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said: “We regret Ferrovial’s decision to exclude Ryanair from the Stansted sale process and the failure of the Competition Commission to restrain this anti-competitive and anti-customer behaviour by Ferrovial.

“While we fully accept that Ferrovial is entirely free not to sell to Ryanair, we fail to understand how it can comply with competition law if Stansted’s biggest customer, accounting for 70% of the traffic, is excluded from this sale process.”

BAA and Stansted Airport declined to comment.

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