GIP selling off Gatwick by the pound – is that what the airlines expected?

During negotiations for the enforced sale of London's Gatwick Airport during 2009, the resident airlines there, and especially those with extensive operations like easyJet, let it be known that what they really wanted next was a 'real' airport operator that had the interests of airlines and passengers at its heart. While GIP's experience at London City Airport - albeit only with short-haul airlines apart from BA's New York flight - would have been comforting to those airlines, its surprisingly quick decision to offer equity to a pension fund and a sovereign wealth fund may be cause for some concern to the airlines.