Stansted Airport to be sold by BAA

Airports operator BAA has decided to sell Stansted Airport, ending its long-running legal battle.

It has been fighting a 2009 Competition Commission ruling that it must sell Stansted because of the lack of competition between London airports.

BAA was told to sell off Stansted and Gatwick, but by then it had already started the process of finding a buyer for Gatwick.

It was also ordered to sell off either Glasgow or Edinburgh airports.

BAA said it had decided not to challenge the Stansted ruling in the Supreme Court, the last opportunity it had to appeal.

"We still believe that the Competition Commission ruling fails to recognise that Stansted and Heathrow serve different markets," it said.

Stansted is London's third busiest airport and the UK's fourth.

When the inquiry process was launched five years ago, BAA owned seven UK airports, carrying 60% of all UK air passengers.

It had a virtual monopoly over airports in the South East of England, where Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Southampton carried 90% of air passengers in the area.

Its Scottish airports - Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen - accounted for 84% of airport passengers in Scotland.

BAA has recently completed the sale of Edinburgh airport.