Ryanair withdraws from Stansted auction

Ryanair has been forced to withdraw from any bid for London’s third-busiest airport, Stansted, after being informed that Ferrovial, the airport’s owners, will exclude any bid including the Irish airline.

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said he was bemused by what amounted to a bizarre decision to ban the airport’s largest customers from being involved in any consortium to take over its operations.

“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% of the traffic, is excluded from this sale process,” he said.