The Herald have reported that Edinburgh Airport is increasing its passenger number lead over Glasgow Airport, with the gap up to 200,000 every month only three years after it took over as the busier of the two.
What the article didn't mention is the ongoing ownership issue of the airports, which is something I campaigned on at the general election. They are both controlled by BAA, despite a Competition Commission ruling that they must sell one. BAA successfully challenged the ruling on a technicality last December, with no dispute about the merit of it. The original CC inquiry took two years, and it may take years again just to get to the same point, whereupon BAA are given a number of years to make the sell-off.
Meanwhile Glasgow is languishing when it should be robustly competing with its neighbour. BAA have every incentive consciously or unconsciously to let the current trend continue. This was the whole point of the CC ruling.
This cannot be allowed to go on like this. The UK government can look at forcing a sale through the Competition Act (2000) or if not viable, enacting legislation specifically to do it. They should do so.
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