Stansted charges to increase by 300%

ACCORDING to recent news reports, the British Airports Authority (BAA) announced it intends to increase charges at Stansted Airport from the current £2,89 (R34,8) to £8 (R96) by 2008 to pay for the new runway scheduled for 2013. Reportedly, BAA also said it will seek a contribution of up to £1 (R12) from passengers at Heathrow and Gatwick to pay for Stansted. EasyJet and Ryanair, which together account for almost 80% of Stansted’s passengers, will allegedly call on the Civil Aviation Authority to force BAA to scale back its plans and only build what its customers are prepared to pay for. (Dorine Berger)