South Korean Operator May Buy Stansted: Airport International News
The dominant South Korean airport operations group has expressed interest in acquiring London Stansted Airport from BAA, according to information released on 14 May 2012.
The purchase, if it went ahead, would reduce the British Airport Authority's managed sites to four, after the sale of the former London Gatwick Airport in October 2009 and the more recent Edinburgh Airport sale.
According to comments made to news agency AFP by a representative from the Incheon International Airport Corporation, the operator is "watching with interest" and that applies not only to Stansted, but Glasgow Airport, too. "We also have an interest in other British airports to be put up for sale in the near future", the same figure added.
At one point, BAA owned no less than seven airports but was ordered by the Competition Commission to distribute its assets around, to make the UK airport scene a fairer place. A US organisation, GIP (Global Infrastructure Partners) now owns both Gatwick Airport and Edinburgh Airport.
South Korean Stansted Interest
The South Korean Stansted interest, meanwhile, seems to be related to Incheon's newly-expressed interest in developing an overseas portfolio, with foreign business only responsible for a fraction of its 2011 revenue. "Our overseas business since 2009 is only in its infancy", Incheon's representative explained to AFP. "We're mulling various plans to develop it including buying stakes in foreign airports or construction".
London Stansted Airport is the fourth-busiest in Britain, with 18.3 million passing through it in 2011. Incheon International Airport, meanwhile, is the largest in South Korea and it processed almost twice as many passengers in 2011. Three months ago, it was recognised by ACI as the world's best airport for customer service for the seventh consecutive year.
National carrier Korean Air has by far the largest airline presence at Incheon and the site has three runways, all of them over 12,000 feet long. This allows Incheon to handle the very largest commercial aircraft in service today, including Korean Air's fleet of Airbus A380s.
Whether Incheon International Airport Corporation intends to develop London Stansted remains to be seen but Airport International will present further coverage of this story as future facts emerge.