THE long-term future of Glasgow Airport was secured today after owners BAA Scotland were ordered to sell Edinburgh Airport.

THE long-term future of Glasgow Airport was secured today after owners BAA Scotland were ordered to sell Edinburgh Airport.

Regulators will force the sale of the capital's gateway instead of Glasgow in a bid to increase competition in Scotland.

The Competition Commission also wants BAA to dispose of Gatwick and Stansted as it tries to loosen the Spanish firm's market stranglehold.

The findings are included in a provisional report by the watchdog released this morning.

BAA, which has been under fire for months for poor performance, runs seven UK airports, including Heathrow.

Christopher Clarke, chairman of the commission's inquiry, said separate ownership of the two main Scottish airports would benefit millions of passengers.

He said: "Under the common ownership of BAA, there is no competition.

"Under separate ownership, the airport operators, including BAA, will have a much greater incentive to be far more responsive to their customers, both airlines and passengers."

Tom Dalrymple, chairman of Scotland's leading airline flyglobespan today welcomed the ruling.

He said: "There is no doubt an element of competition had to be introduced.

"A BAA-owned Glasgow Airport, working constantly to ensure its facilities and services are at the highest level to compete effectively against its Scottish rivals would be an ideal working partner not just for this airline - but for every carrier.

"And the long-term winner would be the Glasgow traveller."

Derek MacKay, leader of Renfrewshire Council, said: "We welcome the stability that this news brings.

"BAA Scotland has drafted ambitious plans for Glasgow and they can now see them through."

Edinburgh Airport was Scotland's busiest with 886,027 passengers, down 1%, in the 12 months to August.

Glasgow handled 824,052 passengers, a drop of 5.2% on the previous period.

But the airport has secured 171 new flights to Spain and Portugal for next summer and is set to close the gap.

Latest passenger figures for last month show at Scotland's three main airports dropped by 11.5%.

Glasgow Airport was hardest hit, with a fall of 15.6%, while Edinburgh dropped 7.8%.

The CC will now consider responses to its provisional decision document published today.

It expects to publish its final report on BAA's seven UK airports, and the appropriate remedies, by late February or early March 2009.

BAA chief executive Colin Matthews said the CC had not provided "any substantial evidence to support its view that Edinburgh and Glasgow would compete under separate ownership.

"We believe there is no justification for specifying which of these airports should be sold. We will continue to make our case."

After a CC report in August, BAA said it was to sell Gatwick anyway.