Airport and travel News - Gatwick airport

4.2.2009

Passenger numbers likely to knock sale price for Gatwick Airport

BAA's hopes of securing a top price for Gatwick received a setback yesterday when it was revealed that passenger numbers at the airport in November were down 13.5 per cent on the same month last year. This has also reduced the numbers for Gatwick Parking and Gatwick Hotels

The news came less than two weeks after BAA, which is owned by Ferrovial, the Spanish construction group, started the sale process of Gatwick, Britain's second-largest airport, by issuing a prospectus to potential bidders. Andrew Fitchie, of Collins Stewart, the broker, said that the collapse in traffic at Gatwick to 1.977 million passengers in November would depress the price that BAA was likely to achieve.

He added: “The traffic deterioration is, in our opinion, likely to put pressure on forecasts and hence could undermine the disposal value. We continue to recommend Gatwick's regulatory asset base of £1.7 billion or thereabouts as a sensible valuation point — not the rumoured £2 billion-plus.”

But Malcolm Robertson, group communications director of BAA, insisted that one month's traffic figures should not be an issue. “We think most of the bidders will take a long-term view. There is a scarcity value in Gatwick. Capital city airports don't often come on the market and this is London. Gatwick is a superb asset,” he said.

Mr Robertson said that Gatwick, the worst-performing of BAA's English airports in November, was continuing to be hit by the failure of low-cost airlines last year. He said the airport had also lost business to Heathrow after the “open skies” treaty liberalising air travel between the United States and Europe.

The company's seven UK airports handled one million fewer passengers during November than in the same month last year, with numbers falling by 8.9 per cent to 9.8 million.

If passenger numbers are falling so that capacity is spare at Gatwick, this completely negates the arguments for the expansion of Heathrow. Noise from aircraft flying over London to and from Heathrow blights the lives of millions of people, as far east as Blackheath and as far north as Hampstead.