BAA Limited

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from British Airports Authority)
Jump to: navigation, search
BAA Limited
Type Private
Founded 13 December 1985
Headquarters London, England, UK
Key people Stephen Nelson (CEO)
Sir Nigel Rudd (Chairman)
Industry Transport
Products Airport operations and services
Revenue £2,232 million (2006)
Operating income £710 million
Employees 12,471 (2005)
Website www.baa.com

BAA Limited is the owner and operator of seven British airports and operator of several airports worldwide, making the company one of the largest transport companies in the world. It is owned by a consortium led by Grupo Ferrovial, a Spanish firm that specializes in infrastructure.

BAA makes its money from charging landing fees to airlines and also increasingly from the wide range of shops in airport terminals. BAA does not operate all UK airports; many are in the ownership of local authorities or other corporations.

Contents

The British Airports Authority was established by the passing of the Airport Authority Act 1966, to take responsibility for four state-owned airports - London Heathrow Airport, London Gatwick Airport, Stansted Airport and Prestwick International Airport. In the next few years, the authority acquired responsibility for Glasgow International Airport, Edinburgh Airport and Aberdeen Airport.

As part of Margaret Thatcher's moves to privatise government owned assets, the Airports Act (1986) was passed which mandated the creation of BAA plc as a vehicle by which stock market funds could be raised; the initial capitalisation of BAA plc was £1,225 million. In the early 1990s, the company sold off Prestwick. More recently it has expanded into international operations, including retail contracts at Boston Logan International Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (through subsidiary BAA USA, Inc.), and a total management contract with the City of Indianapolis to run entirely the Indianapolis International Airport (as BAA Indianapolis, Inc.).

In December 2005, BAA made a winning bid of £1.2 billion for a 75% stake in Budapest Ferihegy, the largest airport in Hungary, which was being privatised by the Hungarian government, although following the take-over of BAA by Grupo Ferrovial in 2006, the decision was made to sell the stake in Ferihegy and this was done in June 2007, when a consortium led by HOCHTIEF AirPort of Germany purchased the stake.[1]

In July 2006, BAA was taken over by a consortium led by Grupo Ferrovial, following a bid which valued the company at £10.1 billion ($20 billion).[2] As a result, the company was delisted from the London Stock Exchange (where it had previously been part of the FTSE100 index) on 15 August 2006, and the company name was subsequently changed from BAA plc to BAA Limited.

Although the company is adamant that its name is strictly "BAA Limited" and that the letters do not officially stand for anything, it is still widely (albeit erroneously) referred to as the "British Airports Authority" by both the media and the public - even though the Authority officially ceased to exist following the 1986 privatisation.

BAA has garnered criticism for its handling of Heathrow, namely its predominant placement of shops rather than extra security aisles.[2] After much criticism for this, BAA has now removed some shops to provide extra security lanes. The Economist writes that retail is important for BAA at Heathrow because by law, landing charges are much less than those of similar-scope airports and retail shops help make up the difference.[2].

The British government has looked into a possible monopoly BAA holds over London's three main airports.[2]

In July 2007 BAA sought an injunction preventing potential protesters involved in the Camp for Climate Action from approaching its London Heathrow Airport.

The Camp for Climate action comprises a number of organizations who oppose the building of a third runway at London Heathrow because of concerns about the environmental and social impacts. The injunction specifically targeted anyone belonging to, or protesting in the name of "AirportWatch", "The No Third Runway Action Group" and "Plane Stupid".

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ a b c d The Economist, The man who bought trouble. Consulted on July 18, 2007.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAA_Limited"
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.