UAE airlines should bid for British action

There is a great carve-up taking place in the British aviation industry, and UAE airlines and airport operators should be aware of the opportunities that exist for investment in one of the world's most dynamic aviation hubs.

London is the busiest air travel centre in Europe, and is regarded as the key to the lucrative transatlantic routes. But for many years the operators of the three airports that serve the British capital have been woefully incompetent in managing such a potential revenue source. Most recently this could be seen in the decline of Heathrow – once one of the most glamorous airline destinations in the world – to its current status of chaotic and disorganised squalor.

Now the British authorities are preparing to do something about it.

The Spanish-owned operator of UK airports, including Heathrow and London's other airports at Gatwick and Stanstead, are being told to break up their monopoly, which has been deemed to be acting against the public interest. Dubai, which will have a pedigree of building two world-class airports when Al Maktoum opens later this year, should be in the running to manage at least one of these.

Another opportunity also presents itself. British Airways and American Airlines have once again expressed their desire to combine in an alliance that could pave the way for a full merger, but it seems as though the price the British authorities will ask of BA for approval is that it gives up some of its transatlantic slots at Heathrow.

Either Emirates, or the increasingly ambitious Etihad, would be well-advised to throw their hats in the ring in the slots auction that now looks inevitable. If they were successful it would be a major enhancement of their existing international networks, and a sign that both have "arrived" on the global air-travel scene.