Judgment on how to regulate Stansted in future is being deferred by the Civil Aviation Authority following the airport’s new 10-year deal with Ryanair.
The regulator still plans to go ahead and publish its final proposals for future regulation at Gatwick and Heathrow on October 3.
Ryanair revealed a 10-year deal with Stansted on Monday to cut fees charged in return for increasing its flights.
EasyJet struck an agreement with Stansted owner Manchester Airports Group earlier this year.
The authority said that following the announcement that Ryanair and MAG have made a long-term agreement to grow passenger traffic through Stansted, “the CAA has decided it will defer making final proposals on future regulation for Stansted from April 1, 2014.
“Following the Ryanair deal and another agreement between MAG and easyJet announced earlier this year, the CAA will issue a consultation to invite stakeholders to submit representations on how these agreements may affect the market power assessment.”
The 2012 Civil Aviation Act sets a market power test as part of the process for periodically deciding whether a UK airport’s user charges need to be regulated in the future.
The CAA acknowledged that one uncertainty that could alter its view would be if the change of ownership of Stansted “established different behaviours and relationships” with airlines.
The determination for Stansted was due to be published on October 3, along with Heathrow and Gatwick.
Stansted was bought by MAG from Heathrow’s owner earlier this year.
The 10-year growth agreement between Ryanair and MAG will see the airline increase the number of passengers at Stansted from just over 13 million a year to nearly 21 million passengers a year by 2023.