Gatwick Airport has been put up for sale by BAA, the owner of London's three major airports, which today pledged to continue its fight against a decision by the Competition Commission that the company should sell a second London airport.

The airports group, which is owned by Spain’s Ferrovial, maintained that today’s decision to sell Gatwick was not a climbdown, following the Competition Commission’s report into the company’s monopoly of Britain’s airports.

BAA owns Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted in the South East.

In its preliminary report, the Competition Commission said that BAA should sell three airports, including two in London. The Commission's final report is due in the first quarter of next year.

Colin Matthews, chief executive of BAA, said the decision had not been taken lightly. "When the Competition Commission published its provisional findings, we said that we would be realistic in our response though we disagree witht the Commission's report."

He said that BAA would continue to make the case for Stansted, arguing that a sale would disrupt the process of securing planning approval for a second runway at Gatwick. A sale would delay delivery of the new runway, said the BAA chief.

Interest in Gatwick and its retail revenues is likely to be keen. Its two terminals handle 35 million passengers per year, second in volume after Heathrow and, according to BAA, its single runway is the busiest in the world. Its massive shopping malls would also be attractive for an investor.

In its regulatory review of the airport, the Civil Aviation Authority forecast operating earnings for Gatwick of £184 million for the year to March 2009 and it valued its asset base at £1.8 billion.

However, BAA will be expecting significantly higher proceeds from a sale to reflect Gatwick's future profit-generating potential. Reports of interested bidders include Hochtief, the German construction group, and McQuarie, the Australian investment bank.

Richard Branson, the tycoon who founded Virgin Atlantic, said he would be interested in joining a consortium to buy Gatwick. He is one of many airline operators that have criticised BAA's London airport monopoly.

Airlines have argued for years that BAA was too slow to make improvements for capacity, preferring to profit from the rising rents in the overcrowded terminals.

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