 Devon County Council decided to sell its airport shares last year |
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has asked the European Commission to let it review a joint venture's attempt to buy control of Exeter Airport. Normally the commission would review the deal because of its size.
The commission extended its review of the deal to 17 August so it could consider the OFT's request.
A joint venture controlled by units of Macquarie Bank Ltd and Spain's Ferrovial Group is seeking to take over control of the airport.
Exeter and Devon Airport Limited is currently responsible for the management and operation of the airport.
Merger concerns
The concession to run the airport lasts for 125 years. The airport manages 685,000 passengers a year, and will have capacity for up to one million once new facilities are ready.
A spokesperson for the Office of Fair Trading said: "Some competition concerns have been raised at the merger.
"We believe those concerns warrant further investigations due to the regionality of the concerns and we believe we are best placed to do that."
Devon County Council hopes to sell it to the company that runs Bristol Airport.
But there are concerns the move is anti-competitive and will mean Exeter will be reduced to a support role.
A spokeswoman for Macquarie, which forms part of the consortium, said they would run the two airports as completely separate businesses.
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