RPT-TIMELINE-Ferrovial's BAA sells Gatwick Airport

(Repeats to widen distribution)

Oct 21 (Reuters) - BAA, owned by Spanish construction company Ferrovial (FER.MC), agreed to sell Gatwick Airport for 1.5 billion pounds ($2.46 billion) on Wednesday, hoping to bolster its appeal against a competition ruling that it must offload three British airports in total. [ID:LL688906]

Following are key dates in BAA's history:

1965 - The state-owned British Airports Authority (BAA) is established to operate airports more flexibly and profitably.

1966 - BAA assumes ownership and responsibility for Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Prestwick airports. Between 1971 and 1975, it acquires Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow airports.

1986 - The Authority is dissolved and its property, rights and liabilities are passed to a new private company with the same name.

1987 - Floated on the stock market with a capitalisation of 1.23 billion pounds.

1992 - Sells Prestwick Airport.

2005 - Acquires Southampton Airport and Budapest Airport.

May 2006 - Ferrovial makes a successful bid of over 10 billion pounds for BAA and takes control in June 2006.

May 2007 - BAA sells Budapest airport to German construction company Hochtief (HOTG.DE) for 1.9 billion euros ($2.8 billion).

Aug. 18, 2008 - Ferrovial completes a 13.3 billion pound debt refinancing of BAA which includes 3 billion for new investment. Under the terms, Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted are to be hived off into a separate structure.

Aug. 20 - Britain's Competition Commission rules Ferrovial must sell two London airports and one of either Edinburgh or Glasgow to address problems caused by its monopoly for passengers and airlines.

Sept. 17 - BAA puts Gatwick up for sale but says it would resist pressure to sell other parts of its portfolio.

March 19, 2009 - Competition Commission orders the sale of three airports within two years, forcing BAA to sell London's Stansted followed by either Edinburgh or Glasgow once it has completed the ongoing auction of Gatwick.

May 18 - Says will appeal an order by competition regulators to sell three of its airports. July 29 - Ferrovial says it does not need to sell Gatwick airport despite an impending debt bill of 1 billion pounds as first-half losses at its London division more than treble.

Oct. 19 - A competition ruling to sell airports was "riven" with the appearance of bias, the group tells an appeal hearing.

Oct. 21, 2009 - Agrees to sell Britain's second largest airport, Gatwick, to a to a consortium led by Global Infrastructure Partners which already owns London City Airport.

Sources: Reuters/www.baa.com

(Writing by Jijo Jacob; Additional writing by Carl Bagh; Editing by David Cutler and Dan Lalor) ($1 = 0.6697 euro)