Virgin Atlantic considering bid for Gatwick Airport

Virgin Atlantic founder and president, Sir Richard Branson, has confirmed his interest in being part of a consortium of airlines and external investors to launch a £2 billion bid to buy Gatwick Airport, London‘s second largest airport.

Sir Richard said the time had come for Britain’s airports to be run by airlines focused on customer service rather than being monopolised by BAA, which is owned by Spanish group Ferrovial.

Virgin Atlantic’s communications director, Paul Charles, confirmed it is interested in possibly buying Gatwick, but only as part of a consortium.

The news comes just a fortnight after the Competition Commission said in an interim ruling that BAA may have to sell two of its three London airports, believed to be Gatwick and Stansted.

Sir Richard said BAA have been an ‘absolute embarrassment’ and should be broken up.

There is speculation that Virgin has already spoken to a number of potential co-bidders, including funds backed by the Dubai royal family. Other airlines which may be interested in joining a consortium include easyJet, Monarch and Ryanair.

However, industry analysts warned that Gatwick was not yet up for sale and added that Virgin would face stiff competition from bidders around the world.

Gatwick handles around 34 million passengers a year, half of the 68 million that Heathrow handles each year. Stansted handles around 24 million passengers each year.

Last week, Virgin announced that pre-tax profit before exceptionals are up 38% to £60.9 million for the year to the end of February.

The group flew a total of 5.7 million passengers during the year, an increase of 7.6%.
It added that it acquired passengers from British Airways as a result of the problems at Heathrow’s new Terminal 5.

Airlines have been badly hit by soaring fuel costs while several airlines have gone out of business this year including ATA Airlines, Aloha Airgroup, EOS, Maxjet, Silverjet, Skybus Airlines, and more recently, Zoom.

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