Charges in focus: UK government to continue charges ceiling at Stansted; removes Manchester

After a year of deliberation, the UK Government, through recently installed Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly, finally decided on Tuesday 15-Jan to maintain the designation of London Stansted airport so that it will continue to have charges ceiling set by the UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The charge-capping procedure originated in 1986 with five-year reviews to a formula governed by the retail price index (one of a number of ways of judging inflation) and continues to apply to the country's biggest airports at Heathrow and Gatwick - they were not included in the deliberation. Stansted is Britain's third busiest airport.