Ryanair pulls out of airport race

Budget airline Ryanair has withdrawn from the race to buy Stansted after saying the airport’s Spanish owner had blocked it from the sale process.

BAA’s parent company Ferrovial put the airport up for sale in August after abandoning its legal battle with the Competition Commission, which wants to break the firm’s dominant position in the UK.

Ryanair had been seeking no more than a 24.9 per cent stake in Stansted, and held talks with a number of potential bidders who wanted the airline involved in a consortium bid.

Stephen McNamara, the carrier’s head of communications, said: “While we fully accept that Ferrovial is entirely free not to sell to Ryanair, we fail to understand how it can comply with competition law if Stansted’s biggest customer, accounting for 70 per cent of the traffic, is excluded from this sale process.”