Stansted owner mulls swoop for £1.3bn airports group

The owner of Stansted is mulling buying up Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton Airports.

The UK’s largest airport group is weighing up adding Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton (AGS) Airports to its portfolio in a £1.3bn swoop, according to reports.

Manchester Airports Group (MAG), the owner of Manchester and London Stansted airport, is set for a scrap for the three hubs with Spain’s Aena, which runs Luton airport, The Sunday Times reported.

They will be joined by a group of Australian pension funds in pursuing AGS, which is valued at £1.3bn and was put up for sale by its owners Macquarie and the Spanish infrastructure giant Ferrovial earlier in the year.

The move comes after Ferrovial let go of the majority of its stake in Heathrow earlier in the year in a £3.3bn deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

It also falls amid a spate of dealmaking in the UK airport sector. Heathrow’s Saudi takeover raised eyebrows amid growing concern over investments from the oil-rich nation in UK infrastructure assets.

Meanwhile Vinci, which owns Gatwick, bagged a 50.01 per cent stake in Edinburgh airport earlier this year in a deal valuing the hub at £2.5bn.

Aena and MAG were also understood to be in the running to buy Edinburgh Airport as well, the Sunday Times reported.

Passenger traffic at British airports has risen sharply over the last year as demand rebounds dramatically from Covid-era lows.

Aberdeen and Glasgow saw 2.3m and 7.4m passengers pass through their doors last year, although Southampton endured a slower post-Covid bounceback at 750,000.

Heathrow posted a record annual passenger total at 81m last year, while MAG’s Stansted also made history after 28.5m holidaymakers passed through.

A spokesperson for Aena said: “As the largest airport operator in the world, Aena always analyses all available opportunities with rigour.

“Aena’s Strategic Plan establishes the framework for the international growth of the company. The objective is always to generate value for shareholders.”

MAG has been approached for comment. Ferrovial and Macquarie declined to comment.