AIRPORT operator BAA lost its latest challenge yesterday against a decision forcing it to sell Stansted Airport.

The appeal by the Spanish-owned company was rejected by three Court of Appeal judges in London.

In 2009 the Competition Commission (CC) ruled that BAA must sell Stansted, in Essex, and two of its other UK airports. Since the CC decision, BAA has sold Gatwick Airport in West Sussex and, faced with having to dispose of either Edinburgh Airport or Glasgow Airport, it has opted to sell Edinburgh.

BAA has since mounted a series of unsuccessful legal challenges against the decision to force it to sell Stansted. Earlier this year BAA lost an appeal before the Competition Appeal Tribunal.