IATA today painted a distorted and flawed picture of the airport industry, claiming that increases in charges at airports place the burden of the recovery exclusively onto airlines. The claim was made that this would stall recovery in air travel and damage international air connectivity.
This damaging assertion ignores the dire situation of Europe’s airports:
By requesting systematic freezes or reductions in airport charges, IATA is clearly forcing airports into further financial distress to the exclusive benefit of airlines. Frozen or lower airport charges would not prevent airlines from exercising their pricing power over consumers and raise airfares.
In that context, it is important to stress that all major airports in Europe are already tightly regulated, with the regulator’s focus usually on airport affordability for airlines rather than consumer interest and sustainability. This will need to change.
Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI EUROPE, said: “We should ultimately remember that airlines can afford to pay airport charges. Airlines only pay airports if they operate, and only weeks after they have collected revenue from passengers. Airlines are ill-placed to give us a lesson in preserving the interests of customers, when they refused for months to refund passengers for flights that could not take place, with some still dragging their feet to do so. The intervention of the European Commission on this is telling”.
“The long-term recovery of the air transport eco-system will be secured through stabilising and further stimulating demand. These objectives are core to airports’ pricing structures with over 95% of Europe’s airports routinely offering rebates and incentives to airlines. Focusing on investment in sustainable infrastructure will be essential in the recovery as part of the Building Back Better agenda. This calls for increased cooperation and long-term alignment between all air transport eco-system partners, rather than short-term unilateral actions at the expense of others”.
This post was published on 5 October 2021 12:33
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