Regional airports such as Manston and Lydd stand to benefit from any sale of Gatwick and Stansted, according to a Kent airport chief.

Zaher Deir, managing director of London Ashford Airport at Lydd, welcomed the likely disposal of two of BAA's three London airports.

For the past year, competition watchdogs have been probing BAA's ownership of all three London terminals, including Heathrow, to find out whether it operated against the public interest.

Airlines claim that without competition, Spanish-owned BAA has raised costs beyond reasonable levels and delivered poor service to airlines and passengers.

Over-crowding, poor baggage handling and computer failures that separated thousands of passengers from their luggage - as well as the chaos surrounding the opening of Heathrow's Terminal 5 have been blamed on BAA.

The Competition Commission concluded that BAA's common ownership caused competition problems and it would make a final ruling early next year after consulting all the parties involved.

Mr Deir said: "We are pleased with the decision of the Competition Commission in regards to the BAA ownership. I believe the whole dynamic of south east airport's will be more competitive, plus the fact that regional airports will benefit a great deal.

"The congestion at the main airports will not change due to them operating at maximum capacity - however smaller airports will enjoy the spill over and will be able to build on the increase of the number of aircraft movements and passenger numbers."