Exeter: Inquiry about sale

[PAXboy]

I am currently visiting my brother in Devon (England) and the local TV news reported this evening that the sale of Exter to Bristol International is to be questioned. This on the grounds that the sale of a public asset was not done openly.

Is this new news or old news - the reports and interview sounded as if this complaint has just been raised.

[Whispering Giant]

Paxboy - this is relatively old news - well in Devon it is.
The complaint is being taken to the European court's due to the fact that the preffered bidder is the South West Airport's consortium who also own Bristol airport.
The complaint has been raised due to the fact that if bought by the South West Airport's consortium the airport will be relegated to a secondary airport role compared to Bristol which would probably mean that there would be a reduction in services so as not to compete with Bristol.
Obviously this is not a Benefit to the people of Devon/Cornwall who prefer to use Exeter rather than driving 2 hrs up the road to Bristol with it's high parking prices etc. So several local counciller's and also the competing company's have referred the case to the European Court's on fair competion grounds.

brgds
W.G

[WATABENCH]

What a load of rubbish, if anything i think EXT's figs will go up after the sale and investment of private money, I think they'll end up doing the long haul that BRS can't handle knicking yet more pax from CWL, as well as keeping a good network of FLYBE flights, give it a few years and EXT will be booming, and fair play to them, great lil airport, just in dire need of a bigger terminal.

[MerchantVenturer]

WATABENCH

I agree with you that EXT has more to gain from this than BRS, especially in regard to long haul charter flights.

BRS would be likely to lose (or not get) such flights because why would a common owner try to get airlines/tour companies to operate out of BRS with a reduced load or via another airport when it has an airport close by capable of coping without these restrictions?

And I cannot see EXT losing many of its newly obtained Flybe flights because most have been so successful. Indeed, with the experience and muscle of SWAC behind it EXT would be extremely likely to get even more flights and probably more carriers.

Why would SWAC try to run EXT down anyway? Their pax figures have mushroomed in the past two years without any negative effect on BRS whose own pax numbers continue to soar. Surely SWAC see it as a case of having two successful airports in the south west instead of one.

Furthermore, I can see some members of BRS's highly successful management team being sent to EXT to help out there: another minus for BRS and plus for EXT.

I would have thought it much better for EXT to have a friendly airport up the road rather than a rival.

[Ron Glum]

I agree with the above. The owners of Bristol owning Exeter can i would have thought only bring benefits.
Are there any rumours of other carriers basing aircraft at Exeter in the not too distant future? Had to move away from Devon for my career but would love to return.

Ron

[terrier21]

RON i think the problem will be as we have found it with charter airlines offering new routes for next year, Airlines don't want to commit to EXT and Brs for that matter for next summer or further until they now the outcome of the takeover!

[MerchantVenturer]

On 22 July the OFT referred the proposed acquisition of EXT by Macquarie/Ferrovial to the EC to consider whether the matter should be passed to the UK competition authorities re possible anti competitiveness.

I thought I read somewhere that the EC was expected to make a decision by early August. Has anyone any news?

http://www.oft.gov.uk/News/Press+releases/2005/132-05.htm

[jabird]

Is it not better to have one company trying to own both (since when has EDI been harmed by GLA or vv), rather than one trying to stop the other one progressing, as Macquerie & their BHX pals have tried (unsuccessfully of course) to do here at CVT?

Of course, this was nothing to do with sour grapes over lost contracts, "stolen" passengers, and a missed opportunity to buy the airport back in the 90s.

[MerchantVenturer]

It was announced today that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is to investigate the way Devon County Council is selling Exeter Airport.

The European Commission has referred the case back to the UK amid fears the sale could threaten competition in the South West's air travel industry.

I don't know how long the OFT's investigation will take. The OFT seems to have taken on board the concerns of some local politicians and others but whether the investigation is merely a gesture to placate them, a sort of going through the motions, I suppose is anyone's guess.

Link to the BBC report below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/devon/4135138.stm

[jabird]

MV,

The OFT aslo "looked in" to TUI's take over of the CVT lease, and very quickly concluded there was no case to answer. We all know the real Midlands airport mafia are up the road at BHX!

I think that there are questions to ask as a Coventry tax payer about whether the Council really got the best price on the lease, but then again it was a bit of a "distress sale". I would assume that Devon tax payers would want to ask the same questions, but the airport has been on the market for a while, hasn't it, and doesn't seem to have any of the same planning problems that CVT has.

Isn't Sara Randall-Johnson (sp?) both the local councillor, and PR officer for Flybe? Pretty useful for the lobbying no doubt, as I'm sure is having a relatively "quiet" base operator.

[MerchantVenturer]

I don't know anything about Sara Randall-Johnson I'm afraid.

The objections seem to be that having the same owner for EXT and BRS would relegate EXT to a minor role as a sort of overspill to BRS.

Several posts at the beginning of this thread have addressed that with the view that EXT would probably gain more from the union than BRS.