Stansted airlines and passengers face increase

Charges for airlines and passengers at Stansted airport could double as the CAA begins a consultation on the price regulated airport.

Earlier this month transport Secretary Ruth Kelly (pictured) overruled the CAA’s recommendation that a cap on charges at Stansted should be scrapped. The CAA is now looking at the options on how to determine what the new charges should be at the airport from April 2009.

The CAA says it has to decide the charges “against a background which includes the possibility of major investment at the airport in a second runway and associated infrastructure; disagreement between the airport and its users about the nature, timing, scale and cost of that investment; and the scope the CAA sees for regulation of Stansted to affect other airports and their users”.

Low cost airline Ryanair welcomed Ruth Kelly’s decision not to abolish the cap on charges at Stansted, but is still critical of what it regards as airport operator BAA’s monopoly. As well as Stansted, BAA also runs Heathrow and Gatwick, Glasgow airport, Edinburgh airport, Aberdeen airport, and Southampton airport.

Ryanair says that “under the CAA’s watch” airport charges at Stansted doubled in April 2007, and BAA has “failed to provide adequate service levels for passengers, which has led to ever longer queues at Stansted security and immigration”.

Spokesman for Ryanair, Jim Callaghan, says: “The only solution to the BAA monopoly is to break it up and allow each airport to develop additional capacity, which will enable them to compete with one another”.

The CAA consultation on charges at Stansted will run until 17 March, and the CAA will publish firm proposals in December. Charges per passenger could range from £6 to £12.50 depending on which of the pricing methods being considered is chosen.

Written by: Nick Purdom