European airports reassured by new EU Directive on charges, but significant concerns remain…

As the ink dries on the final text of the new EU
Directive on Airport Charges, confirmed by the Council today, ACI EUROPE,
the voice of Europe’s airports welcomed the Commission’s use of ICAO
guidelines and recognition of the role of small, regional airports in the
European Union.
The new Directive will be the template for setting of airport charges within the
EU-27 and shall apply to all European civil aviation airports receiving more
than 5 million passengers per year, along with the largest airports in each
member state. As with all EU directives, the new law has to be implemented
into national law in each member state, with March 2011 being the absolute
final deadline for this.
However, ACI EUROPE remains concerned that the new Directive fails to take
into account market reality and growing airport competition, not only between
small airports, but across the board. Nowadays thanks to aviation
liberalisation, airlines have a virtual global airport superstore from which they
can pick and choose their routes, with no commitments vis-à-vis the airports
and the communities they serve. Furthermore, the new Directive also fails to
recognise that airports need to be incentivised to finance and develop new
infrastructure – a regrettable oversight, not only given the current paralysis in
the financial markets, but crucially because of the widely-recognised airport
capacity crunch that Europe will face in the coming decades.
Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE said “We are pleased that
the EU has avoided reinventing the wheel by making use of ICAO guidelines in
shaping this new Directive. Moreover, the exclusion of small regional airports
with less than 5 million passengers per year is a welcome acknowledgement of
the dominance of airlines and the enormous economic and social boost
airports provide to the regions of Europe.”
He added “Airlines please take note – thanks largely to existing market forces,
airport charges continue to be well below the cost of the infrastructure. Now
that this Directive has been finalised, we are hopeful that the same levels of
transparency will be required of the airline industry, as the Commission
progresses with its current project for transparency on ticket pricing.”

X

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

Tagged as: Business