News: BAA to raise airport landing fees
Flights > News > # 1720 (13/03/2008)
Air passengers will face a rise in ticket prices of about £2 after new landing charges for Heathrow and Gatwick airports were announced.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has allowed airports operator BAA to lift its fees to pay for better facilities and more stringent security measures.
The CAA has given the green light to a charge increase of 23.5% at Heathrow in the year 2008/2009, and 21% at Gatwick.
BAA said the changes did not go far enough. A BAA statement said: “The review does not recognise sufficiently: the scale of the task we are embarked on; the pressures of handling such large infrastructure projects; the full cost of the increased security requirements; as well as the impact of the credit market turmoil.”
Ferrovial is heavily in debt and there have been repeated calls for BAA's monopoly as airport operator to be broken up.
BAA runs the big three London airports - Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted - and its landing charges are fixed by the CAA. It is currently the subject of a Competition Commission inquiry.
BAA believes the increase will not be enough to pay for £6.5bn rebuilding work at Heathrow and ageing facilities at Gatwick.
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