UK's BAA may challenge order to sell airports

A sign is seen outside Stansted Airport in Essex, southern England March 19, 2009.

LONDON (Reuters) - British airport operator BAA is looking to challenge an order to sell two of its airports with an application to the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal CAT.L.

The company, which was last week told by Britain's Competition Commission CC.L that it must begin selling off London Stansted airport and one of its Scottish hubs, said it was still considering its legal options regarding the decision.

"The natural place for us to appeal (against) the ruling would be at the CAT and we have until September 19 to do that," BAA's Chief Executive Colin Matthews told Reuters on Wednesday.

"We won't wait until the last minute but we have some more work to do to scrutinise the report in more detail but as soon as we're done we'll get on with it."

Matthews also refused to rule out taking the matter to the Court of Human Rights if a judicial review fails.

The company, majority owned by Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial (FER.MC) is considering a judicial review which could delay the sale process until at least 2012 even if it is unsuccessful. Appealing to the Court of Human Rights would likely hold up the sales further.

"I can't say yes or no for all time on that point," Matthews said.

The CC's decision, which it said was final, followed a two-year battle between BAA and the CC after the CC ruled in 2009 that BAA exerted a dominant hold on British airports and told it to sell Gatwick and Stansted airports and one of its Scottish airports.

Gatwick has already been sold but Matthews believes being forced to sell the other airports is unfair because the prevailing economic conditions means they will not fetch a fair price.

Analysts expect BAA will only be able to sell Stansted at a big discount to its 1.32 billion pound regulated value.

HALF-YEAR LOSS

Earlier on Wednesday BAA reported an adjusted pretax loss of 116.9 million pounds in the first six months of the year, down from a loss of 167.4 million pounds in the same period of 2010.

The owner of London Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, said revenues rose 12.1 percent to 1.07 billion pounds on passenger traffic up 7.1 percent at 41.1 million, helped by favourable comparisons with the same period last year when air traffic was disrupted by the eruption of volcanic ash in Iceland and by industrial action by British Airways cabin crew at Heathrow.

"At Heathrow, if you take away the impact of the disruption last year growth was 2.9 percent, which is a pretty strong rate of growth," Matthews said.

BAA has, in recent months, reported a steady rise in long-haul business traffic, especially to emerging markets such as China and India, and said growth in U.S. traffic had also helped.

BAA, which owns Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports in Scotland, as well as Heathrow, Southampton and Stansted in England, said it expects to make a profit this year of around 1.12 billion pounds on revenues of roughly 2.3 billion pounds.

Ferrovial shares in Madrid were flat at 8.58 euros by 0800 GMT.

(Editing by Greg Mahlich)