Economic regulation of Heathrow: working paper on financial resilience and ring fencing

This working paper focuses on options the CAA is considering to provide further assurance that Heathrow Airport Limited (“HAL”) operates in a financially resilient manner and that risks to consumers arising from financial distress are appropriately mitigated while not cutting across the financing arrangements HAL already has in place to support its regulated business. It considers options for possible changes to the financial resilience and ring fencing provisions in HAL’s licence that may be appropriate, in particular, given the scale and challenges of the development of new capacity at Heathrow airport. It develops further the thinking we set out in our consultations on the regulatory framework to support capacity expansion at Heathrow in June and December 2017.

The closing date for responses to this document is 11 October 2019.