Gatwick for sale for £1.5 billion!

[Morningside]

To be announced tomorrow (according to Sky) Sale by BAA.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/BAA-Expe...


Are things really getting that bad?

Edited by Morningside on Tuesday 20th October 23:27

[Oily Nails]

FFS, £1.5 Billion!

[speedchick]

I think they were told that they had to get rid a couple as they owned too many, supposed to be selling one of the Scottish ones as well.

[anonymous-user]

Bought by the same lot that own London City it seems.

[S3_Graham]

speedchick said:

I think they were told that they had to get rid a couple as they owned too many, supposed to be selling one of the Scottish ones as well.

Monoply commission isnt it?

[Magog]

Sounds like a bargain to me, forced sale or not, compare the cost to the capital cost of The Heathrow Express, 450 million quid for electrifying 15 miles of railwy and building a short branch down to the airport. Three times as much for a fully working airport, everything in place looks like a bargain.

[anonymous-user]

I wonder if this lot will push for a new runway. It was never in BAA's interests to compete with any of the other London Airports.

[aeropilot]

el stovey said:

I wonder if this lot will push for a new runway. It was never in BAA's interests to compete with any of the other London Airports.

The reason BAA put Gatwick up for sale was that of the 3 x London BAA airports, LGW had the most restrictions in place for expansion.

2nd runway at LGW is very unlikely.

[FourWheelDrift]

If BAA were clever couldn't they sell the site to a housing development company for a very tidy sum, who will build new (and even in these dodgy times) much needed extra housing, still with a very good profit. The flights/business from Gatwick would then have to be transferred to BAAs other airports. So they make money on the deal and the revenue/flights and business is moved from Gatwick and shared out at Heathrow, Stanstead and the others.

[Dupont666]

Why dont the government buy it and make some money off it?

[S3_Graham]

Dupont666 said:

Why dont the government buy it and make some money off it?

that would be far too clever. Or tbh it would anger the greens....

[Oily Nails]

S3_Graham said:

Dupont666 said:

Why dont the government buy it and make some money off it?

that would be far too clever. Or tbh it would anger the greens....

Or more importantly...turn a Profit?...our Government?....don't be daft

[Dupont666]

Oily Nails said:

S3_Graham said:

Dupont666 said:

Why dont the government buy it and make some money off it?

that would be far too clever. Or tbh it would anger the greens....

Or more importantly...turn a Profit?...our Government?....don't be daft

If they give me £1.5 billion to buy it Im sure I could turn a profit... If I buy it and dont run off with the money!!

But hey they could write that off with MP's expenses...

[anonymous-user]

aeropilot said:

el stovey said:

I wonder if this lot will push for a new runway. It was never in BAA's interests to compete with any of the other London Airports.

The reason BAA put Gatwick up for sale was that of the 3 x London BAA airports, LGW had the most restrictions in place for expansion.

2nd runway at LGW is very unlikely.

I disagree, BAA are also selling STN and one of EDI and GLA. The only restriction at LGW is the 2019 agreement between the BAA and the local council.

There are already three second runway proposals for Gatwick including a close in southerly runway like Manchester has, a farther southerly runway which allows simultaneous approaches and a wild card northerly runway which is right through parts of Charlwood and launches aircraft towards Russ Hill.

The second runway was doubtful before when the BAA owned LGW and LHR but to me now looks a much more likely.

[aeropilot]

FourWheelDrift said:

If BAA were clever couldn't they sell the site to a housing development company for a very tidy sum, who will build new (and even in these dodgy times) much needed extra housing, still with a very good profit. The flights/business from Gatwick would then have to be transferred to BAAs other airports. So they make money on the deal and the revenue/flights and business is moved from Gatwick and shared out at Heathrow, Stanstead and the others.

You clearly don't know how much money LGW 'earns' per day.

The housing option would be a serious money loser in comparison

Not to mentioned the loss of capacity couldn't be accomodated between the other airports.

[FourWheelDrift]

aeropilot said:

FourWheelDrift said:

If BAA were clever couldn't they sell the site to a housing development company for a very tidy sum, who will build new (and even in these dodgy times) much needed extra housing, still with a very good profit. The flights/business from Gatwick would then have to be transferred to BAAs other airports. So they make money on the deal and the revenue/flights and business is moved from Gatwick and shared out at Heathrow, Stanstead and the others.

You clearly don't know how much money LGW 'earns' per day.

The housing option would be a serious money loser in comparison

They won't get any revenue if they sell it and someone else operates it. What I mean is if they sell for another use, so it isn't an airport any more. Where will all the business go? It will get shared out to Heathrow and Stanstead or other BAA airports. They don't lose money, in the short term they make a big sum on the sale of Gatwick and over the longer term they make more revenue from the other airports as they are now busier, having taken the business from the former Gatwick airport.

[aeropilot]

FourWheelDrift said:

aeropilot said:

FourWheelDrift said:

If BAA were clever couldn't they sell the site to a housing development company for a very tidy sum, who will build new (and even in these dodgy times) much needed extra housing, still with a very good profit. The flights/business from Gatwick would then have to be transferred to BAAs other airports. So they make money on the deal and the revenue/flights and business is moved from Gatwick and shared out at Heathrow, Stanstead and the others.

You clearly don't know how much money LGW 'earns' per day.

The housing option would be a serious money loser in comparison

They won't get any revenue if they sell it and someone else operates it. What I mean is if they sell for another use, so it isn't an airport any more. Where will all the business go? It will get shared out to Heathrow and Stanstead or other BAA airports. They don't lose money, in the short term they make a big sum on the sale of Gatwick and over the longer term they make more revenue from the other airports as they are now busier, having taken the business from the former Gatwick airport.

They're getting £1.5bn for it.

There's not a cat in hells chance that they would be allowed to sell it for development, the £2bn per year LGW contributes to the economy would be lost, not to mention 25,000 odd jobs (and that's ignoring the immense cost to redevelop would make it an impractical proposition)
As I said, the other airports couldn't take Gatwick's capacity between them anyway, as you would be a runway down, as they are all close to capacity as it is.

Sorry, but it's an absurd suggestion.

[Papoo]

£1.5bn does sound like a large amount on the face of it, but to me this sounds like quite a low price for a business turning over £2+bn each year. They'd be quids in if they get the parallel runways with PRM/simultaneous use.

[Morningside]

How much land does Gatwick cover?

[Marf]

S3_Graham said:

Dupont666 said:

Why dont the government buy it and make some money off it?

that would be far too clever. Or tbh it would anger the greens....

RBS have provided funding to the bidders, so indirectly the government does own some of it.