BAA plc

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BAA plc

Type	Private
Founded	December 13 1985
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
Key people	Stephen Nelson (CEO) Marcus Agius (Chairman)
Industry	Transport
Products	Airport operations and services
Revenue	£2,232 million (2006)
Operating income	£710 million
Employees	12,471 (2005)
Website	http://www.baa.com/

BAA plc is the owner and operator of seven major United Kingdom airports and operator of several airports worldwide, making the company one of the largest transport companies in the world. It is owned by a consortium led by Grupo Ferrovial, a Spanish firm that specializes in infrastructure.

BAA makes its money from charging landing fees to airlines and also increasingly from the wide range of shops in airport terminals. BAA does not operate all UK airports; many are in the ownership of local authorities or other corporations.

1 History
2 Name
3 BAA Interests
4 External link

[edit] History

The British Airports Authority was established by the passing of the Airport Authority Act 1966, to take responsibility for four state-owned airports - London Heathrow Airport, London Gatwick Airport, Stansted Airport and Prestwick International Airport. In the next few years, the authority acquired responsibility for Glasgow International Airport and Edinburgh Airport.

As part of Margaret Thatcher's moves to privatise government owned assets, the Airports Act (1986) was passed which mandated the creation of BAA plc as a vehicle by which stock market funds could be raised; the initial capitalisation of BAA plc was £1,225 million. In the early 1990s, the company sold off Prestwick. More recently it has expanded into international operations, including retail contracts at Boston Logan International Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (through subsidiary BAA USA, Inc.), and a total management contract with the City of Indianapolis to run entirely the Indianapolis International Airport (as BAA Indianapolis, Inc.).

In December 2005, BAA made a winning bid of £1.2 billion for a 75% stake in Ferihegy, the largest airport in Hungary, which was being privatised by the Hungarian government. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4511168.stm

In July 2006, BAA was taken over by a consortium led by Grupo Ferrovial, following a bid which valued the company at £10.1 billion. As a result, the company was delisted from the London Stock Exchange (where it has previously been part of the FTSE100 index) on 15 August 2006.

[edit] Name

Although the company is adamant that its name is strictly "BAA plc" and that the letters do not officially stand for anything, it is still widely (albeit erroneously) referred to as the "British Airports Authority" by both the media and the public - even though the Authority officially ceased to exist following the 1986 privatisation.