Branson & Dubai Royals in Talks to Buy Gatwick Airport

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed)
Sep 17th 2008 at 7:01PM

Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of the Virgin Group, is in talks to acquire London's Gatwick Airport, the second largest and busiest airport in the United Kingdom after Heathrow. Gatwick's owner BAA Ltd., which also owns Heathrow, plans to sell the airport, valued at about $5.4 billion, due to antitrust regulations, Bloomberg reports.

The Virgin Group encompasses several companies including Virgin Atlantic airlines and Virgin Mobile. The adventurous Branson's personal fortune is estimated at $2.8 billion. He plans to form a consortium to bid for the airport, which handled 35 million passengers in 2007.

His partners on the potential deal are said to include Dubai's Royal Family, the London Telegraph reports. Obviously competitors would be worried that Branson and Virgin might gain an unfair advantage by controlling the airport, which is the sixth largest in Europe.

Tags: Airlines, Airports, Dubai, Gatwick, London, Richard Branson, RichardBranson, Virgin airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Group, VirginAirlines, VirginAtlantic, VirginGroup