Ferrovial vows to comply with UK airport probe

Emily Pacey

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Spanish firm Ferrovial, bidding to buy BAA, has welcomed the Office of Fair Trading's investigation into the UK airport sector

Grupo Ferrovial has said that it would cooperate fully with any review of the UK airport market if its bid for BAA is successful.
 
The Spanish construction firm, which has made three hostile bids for BAA as leader of the Airport Development and Investment (ADI) consortium, was responding to the UK Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) decision to measure competitiveness in the country's airport sector, in which BAA is dominant. The OFT may subsequently refer the industry to the Competition Commission for a full investigation.
 
ADI also announced an agreement with the trustee of the BAA Pension Scheme as to "an appropriate and robust strategy" for the scheme in the event of the company's acquisition of BAA.

The OFT's announcement yesterday that it would investigate the structure of the UK airport market has been interpreted by some as a sign that BAA's airport network, which includes seven airports in southern England and Scotland, will be broken up amid competition concerns. In London, 92% of air travellers begin or end their journey at a BAA airport, while in Scotland the figure stands at 86%. Talking to UK newspaper Financial Times, the OFT said that it may study the possibility of introducing competition within airports by allowing individual terminals to be run by different operators.