BAA says sale of Gatwick going well
[November 19th 2008]
Airport operator BAA says the sale of Gatwick is going according to plan as it reveals its results for the nine months to the end of September.
BAA’s results for its regulated airports show revenue was up by 16% to £1,721.3 million, benefiting from the higher landing fees at Heathrow and Gatwick approved by the Civil Aviation Authority in April. However, this still led to a loss of £145.6 million after tax.
“BAA has delivered a resilient performance with results in line with forecasts. With trading conditions expected to remain challenging in the coming months, we are maintaining our sharp focus on operational improvement and a substantial programme of capital investment, which will lead to better passenger service standards and lower costs,” reports BAA chief executive, Colin Matthews.
The sale of Gatwick airport was announced on September 17th as BAA appeared to bow to pressure from the Competition Commission to dispose of at least one of the seven airports it owns in the UK.
BAA says the sale process is “progressing according to plan”. It expects a detailed information memorandum relating to the sale to be circulated to interested parties by early next month.
Latest trading figures show that the asset base at Gatwick airport at March 31st 2008 was £1,560 million. BAA forecasts that this will be approximately £1,700 million at March 31st 2009. This gives a good indication of the value of bids that Gatwick is likely to receive, with a figure in excess of 2 billion expected.
The latest results from BAA also show that operating costs at Heathrow increased by 43% to £946.4 million. BAA says the extra cost of running Terminal 5 added £95.5 million during the first nine months of this year.
The airport operator reports service quality at Heathrow has improved rapidly following the disastrous opening. By the second quarter of 2008 Terminal 5 was rated as performing better than any other airport in Europe in the independent Airport Service Quality survey produced by Airports Council International.
Queues at airport security have also improved greatly in the last year at Heathrow. BAA says 99% of passengers passed through security at Heathrow within 5 minutes in the six months to the end of September this year.
Written by: Nick Purdom
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