Regulation is a price cap not a given amount that they must charge. BAA currently charge the maximum they are allowed to and keeping the cap in place will mean that nobody can increase them further. Ryanair and EasyJet both welcomed CAA's announcement that Stansted should remain regulated for that reason as operating charges cannot go up and they hope they will decrease under new ownership, but in reality are probably more likely to stay the same.
Being regulated and currently charging at the maximum limit, increased charges cannot happen, therefore bad for Stansted as they are limited as to how much they can charge, but good for airlines as they cannot be affected by price increases so therefore will not increase their operating costs.
Last edited by FRatSTN; 10th Jan 2013 at 13:04.