BOURNEMOUTH International Airport may soon have a sister departure point just two hours away - Gatwick, the world's second business aircraft destination.

The association could come about after competition chiefs this week proposed the break-up of BAA's UK airport empire by calling for the company to stop running two of its three London gateways - Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted - with the latter two the most likely to go.

Making its recommendation, the Competition Commission said that Spanish-owned BAA (which also runs Southampton airport - not subject to any sell-off) has created significant competition problems arising from its ownership of seven UK airports and cited a lack of responsiveness to the needs of its airline customers and a lack of initiative in planning capacity.

The commission said that it believed that "separate owners would be more active than BAA in exploiting existing opportunities" at south east England airports.

Manchester Airports Group (MAG), which operates Bournemouth airport (as well as Humberside and East Midlands) is among the companies which have already expressed interest in taking over the running of any BAA airports that come up for sale.

The company has previously stated that it would be more interested in acquiring Gatwick (or Glasgow, which could also be up for grabs) than Stansted but would need to be part of a consortium to make the purchase as it does not have the cash reserves on its own.

One figure quoted in the financial press has valued Gatwick at £3billion.

Part of the money needed to buy Gatwick would come from Humberside airport which is currently for sale and receiving bids, a decision on which is due to be made by the MAG board next month.

Dr Jonathan Bailey, MAG's external affairs director said: "We are an experienced, UK-owned airport operator with a strong track record in investing in the passenger experience, delivering efficient operations, a partnership approach to our business relationships, managing our costs effectively and a world-leading environmental performance.

"We have consistently stated the group is interested in acquiring assets that will add value for shareholders and this could include one or more of the BAA airports. We are currently examining the details of today's report before making any decision about future acquisitions."

A company spokesman added that any expansion of their ownership would not affect its involvement in Bournemouth.

"We are totally committed to Bournemouth and the £45million investment in the new terminal. Any new acquisition will have no detrimental effect on our Bournemouth operation."

Bournemouth could eventually have links to a second London airport as budget airline Ryanair, which flies out of the south coast location, has made no secret of the fact that it would like to run Stanstead.