How BAA may find itself in terminal decline as Ferrovial debts rebound

DENIS Potter, one of my favourite playwrights, remarked: "I did not fully understand the dread term 'terminal illness' until I saw Heathrow." If airports are Hell incarnate, then Heathrow is definitely the Ninth Circle where Lucifer himself resides.

To be rational for a moment, Heathrow suffers from a unique conjuncture of problems: limited runway space, costly security issues, heavy regulation and huge investment demands.

Nevertheless, there are shareholder compensations: BAA, which owns He...