UK regulator lands Heathrow slots as first target post Brexit

Bloomberg

The UK’s competition watchdog is setting out what it wants to look like in a post-Brexit world — and the first step is filling the regulatory gap.
The Competition and Markets Authority plans to probe control of the take-off and landing slots at London’s Heathrow Airport as part of an investigation into a British Airways alliance on tran- satlantic flights. It marked its first move to seek oversight of a transaction that would traditionally have been handled by the European Commission.
The CMA said it needs to prepare when the EU no longer has responsibility for competition in Britain even as the potential of a Brexit transition deal means it’s uncertain when the split may happen. The agency is set to face a greater workload when it takes on responsibility for all mergers that affect the UK after the country’s departure from the EU. “There’s no guarantee the commission will look at the routes if there’s no deal,” said Steven Vaz, a competition lawyer at Ashurst in London.
Brexit will give the British regulator the responsibility to examine the large transactions that had fallen under the commission’s purview. “Now, it will mean all the important cases,” Michael Grenfell, the CMA’s enforcem- ent director, said in May.
The regulator plans to reassess a 2010 agreement with American Airlines, brokered by the European Commission, that saw the surrender of operator slots to rivals at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports. The deal, which is set to expire after 10 years, was put in place to address competition concerns on routes from London to the US.