The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) today published price caps for Stansted Airport for April 2009 until March 2014.

This is the CAA’s third attempt at setting the right price at Stansted – and the third time it has got it wrong. First it tried to wipe its hands of the airport by proposing total price deregulation; when the Government rightly rejected this idea the CAA then proposed that price caps could be set so high (up to £12.70) as to effectively deregulate by the back door, which was in turn rejected by the CC in October 2008.

Today’s decision is the best of a bad bunch (£6.53) but it is still wrong. The CAA has allowed monopoly airport owner BAA to claw back from airlines £300 million that it spent planning for a second runway that may never be built. These costs have been wastefully incurred against the wishes of airlines and ignored the CAA’s own ruling on consultation and efficiency. The Government is currently looking at the how our monopoly airports are regulated and must consign the practice of charging customers for facilities that may never be built to the dustbin of history.