Bunkerbarge

For those of you who didn't catch the news this morning BAA has been bought out by a Spanish building consortium for god knows how many billions.

This means that control of our major airports, including Gatwick, Heathrow and many others, is now in the hands of a foreign country and profits generated by these airports will go outside the UK.

Yet again I worry that things are allowed to happen in this country that are not in the best interest of the inhabitants of these islands without any concern, never mind intervention by the government.

On the same new program it was explained how demanding the building of over 1 million homes in the South East is overloading the water distribution system that is currently unable to cope with demand.

We seem to be in the control of a completely incompetent, uncaring, selfish and corrupt government and I just wonder what the hell they are going to come up with next.

new to trains

my brother works for BAA at our local airport - Heathrow, he seems to think the quoted buy out figure , i think in region of 10 billion is a good one, BAA have been holding out for a cost of approx £10 per share, this buy out offer by the spanish airport and construction company is considered to be a fair price.....
the much needed investment should also be forthcoming if the take over contiues, with talks of expansion at the london airports in particular, but also remeber BAA also own southampton and several scottish airports too.....

i would not necessarily think this takeover is all bad.... but maybe i will be proved wrong........time will tell

__________________
just gotta keep building !

rjwood_uk

well they aslo have another offer from an american company so lets just see!!!

new to trains

i am pretty sure the spannish bid will go ahead....

wonwinglo

This is not a good move,and can only mean cutbacks and general streamlining only in the interests of the owners.
Just sit back and see the results in a few years time.
BA were in a mess only a few years ago,to cut costs they even de-mobilised the lifts at Gatwick besides laying off staff.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

new to trains

i have a feeling it may actually be a positive move.... the spannish company is also a construction company, and my god some of our airports need work !
Ferrovial ( the spannish firm) will if the takeover goes ahead get control of southampton airport, also scottish airports currently run by BAA- these i feel are under utilised at present, - heathrow is jam packed, and unless expansion occurrs quickly then alternative locations need to be sought for the increased number of flights into the UK... maybe we should be looking at re routing the increased number of flights ot these quality provincial airports, -southampton is a fine airport.....stanstead is ok, but hardly close to london..... heathrow is just too busy, too full...and gatwick is full of holiday charters and again very very busy...
there is already talk that ferrovial may be forced to sell off gatwick if the takeover goes ahead, this can only improve competition for the airlines/ airports which is ultimately is beneficial for air travellers,- yes it will mean they will need to trim the fat off the business- this will cost jobs but i understand there are alot of ''workers' who are not grafting within the BAA gorup !!!
, i know alot of people who work for BAA ,( my boss was also former maintnenance director for gatwick airport for 12 years) and he says the shake up is well overdue,
also BAA also operate a large majority of the airport functions, eg the baggage handling operations, car parking also the airport retail outlets and associated services- i honestly think that we may see improved service and keener pricing for anything from short stay car park to duty free style shopping if this deal goes through..... at the end of the day competition should be good for passengers and users of the airport.... currently it appears to be a closed market with the only people benefitting is the BAA bankers !

__________________
just gotta keep building !

wonwinglo

Sorry I thought the takeover was for BA ( British Airways ) ! I understand now you are talking of British Airports Authority,that certainly is a very different matter,my apologies I should have read it more closely,in that case the move could be a good one for everyone concerned.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

Bunkerbarge

At the end of the day no-one is going to put money into anything without the guarrantee of a return.

True they will invest in our Airports but my concerns are:

A) They are having to borrow heavily to be able to afford the takeover so they are not exactly going to have loads of money to invest initially.

B) Profits generated by our airports in the future are going to be going outside the country and I don't see how anyone can consider that to be a good thing.

C) All future decisions regarding our major international airports are not going to be made in the interest of this country but are going to be made based entirely on the interests of the foreign owners and thier shareholders.

This is going to go exactly the same way as our water companies who make decisions based on keeping shareholders happy, most of which are in France, rather than creating a better, more efficient system for the UK consumers. This is exactly why profits are maintained yet desperately needed leak repairs are not carried out. Do you think the French shareholders care whether Kent has stand pipes or not?

A few years ago the remains of our steel industry was bought off by a Dutch company, Corus. All they have done since then is bled it dry, shut down steel works under the pretence of efficiency, and taken the remaining profits abroad. That was touted at the time as "Good for the industry" yet this industry is now practically non existant and the Dutch have continued to make money out of it.

I am certain that there is no doubt that this is not in the best interest of our airports, the travelling public or any of the employees who work for BAA. The only people who will benefit are the Spanish shareholders and Spanish construction workers.

rjwood_uk

totaly agree with you there richard.

not meaning to be shallow minded but i hate any foreign company that buys out a british one, in my mind they are in our country...so they are ours. they dont care about us and wouldnt know what is best for us even if they lived here. all they care about is proffit.

our prime minister asks george bush for permission to do anything, our industries are owened by people who dont even like fish and chips!!!

is there going to be anything left we can call "British" soon?

new to trains

agreed but you need to speculate to accumulate....investment will follow, it has too !