SIR Michael Bishop has welcomed the takeover of airports operator BAA by Spanish construction and services giant Ferrovial.
“I’ll be interested to see how BAA approaches issues the previous owner said were intractable,” said the BMI chairman, adding that it was significant that Ferrovial is a construction company.
“I feel they will have a different approach. They build major projects all over the world, are already an airport owner in the UK and we’ve had positive dialogue with them,” he said.
“A lot of the same people are still running the business, but under different direction. It’s a change we’ve been seeking.”
BMI continues to lobby for a third runway at Heathrow, but is also in talks with BAA to increase terminal capacity.
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The Airbus A380 will be a boost for BMI, despite the airline having no plans to operate one, according to deputy chief executive Tim Bye. “It will mean increasing feeder traffic.
There won’t be sufficient passengers who want to fly Heathrow-Singapore on the A380 without adding passengers from Edinburgh, and that’s good news for us.”