The UK Competition Commission (CC) this week announced an inquiry into BAA's ownership of London's three main airports, Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.
These three airports handle between them 125.7m passengers a year, far, far higher than those who use the two smaller airports at London City and Luton. It gives BAA a virtual monopoly on air travel in and out of the UK capital.
But while the CC's inquiry is welcome – many airlines, like easyJet have been calling for it for years – a break up of BAA into rival and competing airports will not solve the problems now afflicting the biggest of them all, Heathrow (LHR).
LHR, according to Airports Council International (ACI), handled 67.5m passengers last year. But this figure actually fell, albeit by a miniscule 0.6%, compared with 2005.
The problem lies in the hopelessly inadequate facilities to cope with this number. And since last August, the situation at the already chaotic airport has been severely exacerbated by the imposition of stringent security requirements.
It is these that Willie Walsh, ceo of BA, pinpoints in analysing LHR's problems. The airline's flat revenue in its latest results "reflects the continued impact of security and baggage restrictions on short haul and premium transfer traffic, which Heathrow has been struggling to cope with."
He added: "We appreciate how frustrating this has been for our customers and I am pleased the Government has also recognised this and set up a working group to see how quickly the restrictions on hand baggage can be eased.
"In order for the Government to remove the restrictions, the BAA must recruit additional personnel and invest in the right equipment so we can get back to offering good customer service."
Next year's opening of Terminal Five, to where BA will move its entire LHR operation, will ease the overcrowding to some extent. The move by Star Alliance and SkyTeam airlines into, respectively, Terminals One and Three will help rationalise operations while the demolition of Terminal Two will rid Heathrow of one of its most dysfunctional buildings.
But that is just part of the equation. The other half is that the owners of BAA, Gruppo Ferrovial must invest and invest heavily if the airport is to serve its vital and essential function efficiently.
But there is little sign of this. Figures released by the owners this week suggest the opposite. In the year since Ferrovial paid £10.3bn for BAA and its seven airports, it has invested £252m in LHR. This compares with the £298m invested the year before it took over, a drop of 15%. (At the same time its revenue from LHR was £1.232bn compared to £1.007bn the previous year.)
These figures seem to confirm fears widespread at the time of Ferrovial's take over that it neither fully grasped the importance of Heathrow and its future expansion to the British economy nor had it the required level of money to ensure that development.
If and until the necessary level of funding is provided, LHR is likely to remain in its present state of chaos. This affects not only the holidaymakers whose break starts with depressing delays but also the regular users, the business travellers.
It is well documented that frequent travel is a cause of stress. By this measure LHR, with its long queues and poor facilities, is a major contributor to high blood pressure. Not surprisingly, more corporates are planning journeys which avoid this airport where possible. It is no accident that that Eurostar is boasting of record bookings.
An efficient and smooth running Heathrow is vital to the UK economy and to a lesser extent that of Europe. But it is also vital to the health of the millions of business travellers who use it every year.