The Co-operative Travel has welcomed the recommendations of the Competition Commission over BAA.
The Competition Commission has recommended BAA be forced to sell three of its seven UK airports, two in the south east and one in Scotland.The Commission found BAA guilty of “a lack of responsiveness” and said its airport investments did not meet the requirements of airport users.
The Co-operative Travel managing director Mike Greenacre said: “We believe that these recommendations should be implemented in full, as it will be good news for the customers that use London and Scottish Airports.
“To have a stronger element of competition between the two main London airports will, we believe, drive much greater investment in making the airport experience a much more positive one, particularly check-in and security processes.
“BAA’s main focus has revolved around how many designer shops, cafes and restaurants it can provide in order to extract as much revenue as possible from the captive audience that are its millions of travellers.
“Conversely, we believe the queues at both check-in and security – where there is inconsistency and confusion among holidaymakers – come as a direct result of a lack of investment from BAA, both in terms of staffing and equipment.”
He said the travel group is supportive of British ownership of the airports and indicated his support for the Manchester Airport Group which ahs laready expressed an interest in one of the airports.