THE Civil Aviation Authority and BAA are squaring up
for a scrap over how the expansion of southeast airports will be funded.
BAA has indicated it will challenge current CAA
funding restrictions preventing it from using Heathrow fees to pay for an extra
runway at Stansted.
The CAA is adamant BAA’s three London airports,
Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted, will continue to be regulated and run on a
‘standalone’ basis.
BAA chief executive Mike Clasper and CAA chairman Sir
Roy McNulty jousted in back-to-back speeches at the Merrill Lynch European
Transport Conference in London last week.
Clasper said: “If we think the reasons [to challenge
the current regulations] are compelling, it will be BAA’s duty to argue the
case.”
Clasper warned it will not ask shareholders or lenders
to support the building of an additional Stansted runway by 2012 unless it is
financially viable to do so.
McNulty said: “The key
principle is that investments – particularly large ones – have to pay for
themselves.”