Airlines attack ‘unacceptable’ price rises as they struggle through the crisis The Association of European Airlines has expressed its concern †yet again †at the continuing trend on the part of airports across Europe to increase the fees they charge to their airline customers in order to compensate themselves for lower traffic levels during the current recession.
With few honourable exceptions, airports are jacking up their fees, while national authorities are stalling on implementing the EU Airport Charges Directive which will require fees to be independently regulated in a transparent and consultative process.
Nowhere is this process more evident than in Germany. Frankfurt Airport is proposing an increase of 8.4% next January, to fund future expansion, on top of a hike of about
4,6% for. ‘central infrastructure’. Germany’s second-largest hub, Munich, announced an increase in its charges by 4%. As a result, other airports, which were intending to freeze their charges to help their hard-pressed customers, are now reconsidering this policy.
Said AEA Secretary General Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus: “Frankfurt Airport could do with a reality check. Its customers are struggling to survive in the current market and the
very last thing they need is a cost increase”. When airlines invested for growth, he said, they did not pre-finance their expansion through higher ticket prices;
“it is evident that growth in commercial activity should be self-sustaining, sound business plans should have no difficulty attracting investors, and increased volume of business
should lead to lower prices, not higher”, he said.
He contrasted this behaviour with the airlines’ own experience, and with other sectors suffering from the recession. “On the High Street, we don’t see supermarkets raising their prices because there are fewer customers coming through their doors, we see price incentives. We don’t see new car dealers doubling their prices because their
sales have been halved, we see aggressive discounting. The same goes for the airlines, who are trying to stimulate the market with still more attractive price offers”, said Mr Schulte-Strathaus.
Elsewhere in Europe there are similar stories of restraint in airport charges being short-lived. There is no indication that London-Heathrow or Paris-Charles de Gaulle will refrain from their planned price hikes in the course of the year.
Copenhagen, which agreed to hold back charges increases, will reinstate them by the end of the year, while Warsaw and other Polish airports discriminate against network carriers in
Association of European Airlines
Adria Airways, Aer Lingus , AeroSvit , Air France, Air Malta
Air One, Alitalia, Austrian , bmi , British Airways, Brussels Airlines , Cargolux, Croatia Airlines , Cyprus Airways
Czech Airlines , DHL , Finnair, Iberia , Icelandair , Jat Airways
KLM , LOT , Lufthansa, Luxair , Malev , Olympic Airline , SAS Scandinavian Airlines , SWISS , TAP Portugal , TAROM
TNT Airways , Turkish Airlines Ukraine International Airlines
Virgin Atlantic Airways
favour of no-frills operators through selective incentive deals. A similar proposal by Marseille was blocked by the French regulator. One notable exception – for the time being at least – is Norway, where the airports have recognised the hardships facing their customers and have frozen fee levels.
(c) Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Date posted: 23-Jul-09
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Airlines attack ‘unacceptable’ price rises as they struggle through the crisis 
