Responses to the report on BAA

BAA's ownership of seven British airports may not be in the best interests of either airlines or passengers, according to the Competition Commission.

Its interim report suggested that competition and capacity might be better served by some of the airports being owned by other companies, especially those in the south-east of England.

BAA owns Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Southampton and Aberdeen airports.

Below is some of the reaction to the commission's report.

Colin Matthews, BAA

The case that they need to make is that some different ownership structure is going to deliver that new capacity and new investment more effectively.

I'm not convinced that's the case.

We can improve Heathrow operations and we must improve Heathrow operations, and that's exactly why I've restructured the business to focus on exactly that issue being our top priority.

My own view is that if we don't operate Heathrow effectively then, as it were, we won't have a leg to stand on in these important strategic long-term issues.

Jim French, FlyBe

This is a very damning report by the Competition Commission - they've highlighted several key issues.

I think they're sending a very clear signal to BAA that they should really review their position and perhaps divest themselves of some of their airports prior to actually being forced to do so.

I think they should possibly sell off Southampton, one of the London airports, Gatwick or Stansted and sell off one of the lowland airports to create a creative tension.

It seems the Competition Commission has seen the light.

They support the views of every airline and every passenger that there is no competition at our major airports.

We now need to see a roadmap laid out for changing their ownership structure.

It's very important that the airlines as well as the airports manage this situation and improve performance where it's lacking.

Clearly that needs to be fixed.

Part of this is due to lack of investment or lack of extra capacity, so the airports have been operating under severe pressure, and partly down to, quite frankly, not good enough operational performance on the day.

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