Britain's competition watchdog said Thursday that an investigation into the market domination of airports operator BAA PLC will consider levels of customer service and security, accordring to AP. The Competition Commission said it has already collected extensive evidence from a wide range of parties and was aware of concerns about the operation of airports including Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted in London. However, the commission said it maintained an open mind at this stage about its findings and any possible remedies. It has the power to order BAA to sell off one or more of the seven airports it operates around Britain, including Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland. The government ordered the Competition Commission to begin investigating BAA, owned by Spain's Grupo Ferrovial SA, in March after scores of complaints from airlines and consumers and calls from airlines for the group to be broken up. Referring the inquiry to the commission, the government's Office of Fair Trading said it believed the London airports may serve consumers better under separate ownership _ BAA's airports currently handle around 90 percent of passenger flights made in southeast England and 63 percent of all flights to and from Britain. The Competition Commission noted that complaints included the delays experienced by passengers getting through security, overcrowding, poor signage and low standards of cleanliness. It said it would look at how common ownership might affect incentives to improve levels of service and security at BAA's airports. It added that it would also assess the impact of regulatory restrictions on airport development and constraints on capacity in terms of runways, terminals and other facilities. BAA was heavily criticized for its response to last summer's terrorist alert, when tighter security controls led to long delays at Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, and Gatwick. Heathrow particularly is subject to persistent delays because it is operating close to capacity _ a new fifth terminal that will help ease congestion is still a year away from completion. London Mayor Ken Livingstone last week called Heathrow a «shame» on London. «It's quite clear the current management, and management before them, thought they could keep people almost as prisoner in this ghastly shopping mall so they can extract vast sums of money from them while they wait in appalling conditions,» he said. British Airways PLC, itself under fire for long delays and lost baggage of passengers traveling through Heathrow, repeated its calls Thursday for a break-up of BAA, saying common ownership was the «root cause of the failure to expand Heathrow's runway capacity.» «There is huge unsatisfied demand for extra runway capacity at Heathrow from customers and airlines and less demand at Stansted,» said BA Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh. «At both airports, as long as environmental conditions are respected, new runway developments should be market-led not left to a common owner's interests to dictate timescales.» The Competition Commission said it would collect more information in the next few months, before publishing a consultation document early next year. It plans to release its final report around August 2008.
