BAA launches an appeal to Competition Appeal Tribunal over the sale of some of its airports.

BAA has confirmed it is to appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) to review the report of the Competition Commission, which requires the sale of three of its airports.

BAA said it is basing the appeal on two separate grounds, the first “that the Competition Commission failed to take into account the adverse financial impact of introducing competition, in particular by requiring BAA to sell three airports within two years in the current financial and economic circumstances.”

The second is that the report had been affected by apparent bias, as links had been found between a member of the Competition Commission panel and one of the organisations interested in buying one of the airports BAA were required to sell.

The company, which owns Gatwick, Heathrow, Stanstead, Southampton, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow airports, as well as a 65% share in Naples airport in Italy, had been asked by the Competition Commission to sell three of its airports, including one in Scotland.

Christopher Clarke, who had chaired the two-year inquiry into BAA’s dominance over airports in Scotland and the South East of England, said the sale of the airports would bring “substantial benefits to passengers and airlines”.

BAA has stated the sale of Gatwick will continue.