Ferrovial received at least two bids for Gatwick airport on Monday as the first part of the forced break-up of BAA, its UK airports subsidiary, entered a decisive phase.

The offer prices, estimated by analysts to be in the range of £1.3bn to £1.5bn, were well below the Spanish infrastructure group’s expectations of last September, when it announced the sale of the UK’s second-largest airport with the hope of attracting bids in the range of £1.8bn to £2bn.