Travel group doubts BAA pledge

The Co-operative Travel Group has claimed that BAA will not stick by independent recommendations on increasing flights at London Heathrow Airport.

TTG reported that the UK's largest independent travel provider has "poured scorn" on the airline operator's invitation for the government to set up an autonomous body, which would set limits on the number of flights leaving Heathrow in line with environmental targets.

However, BAA attached a clause to this agreement, by insisting that it would only abide by those limits if it was given permission to build a third runway. Mike Greenacre, managing director of Co-operative Travel Group, believes that BAA is happy to say anything that "suits their commercial purposes".

He told TTG: "In 1999 they said that they would not ask for a third runway if Terminal 5 was approved, and yet here we are following on from the T5 debacle and facing the very real prospect of the government approving a third runway development."

BAA is the owner and operator of seven British airports and is one of the largest transport companies in the world.

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