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The association of world’s airports, ACI World, has slammed calls by the International Air Traffic Association (IATA) to stop increasing airport charges.
IATA expressed an alarm on Monday that airports and air navigation service providers (ANSPs) have so far increased charges by approximately $2.3 billion.
The international body warned that further increases could be ten-fold this number if proposals already tabled are granted. The charges are collected from airlines in exchange for the use of all the infrastructure at the airport.
“A $2.3 billion charges increase during this crisis is outrageous. We all want to put COVID-19 behind us. But placing the financial burden of a crisis of apocalyptic proportions on the backs of your customers, just because you can, is a commercial strategy that only a monopoly could dream up,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general.
In response to IATA’s statements, ACI World director general Luis Felipe de Oliveira said the charges are necessary, citing that airports have also suffered during the pandemic and had to make drastic cuts to sustain.
“It is disappointing to hear this tone of statements coming from IATA,” de Oliveira said.
Financial stress
“Airports have also experienced enormous financial stress and had to make drastic cuts to keep afloat. And in many jurisdictions, airports did not receive the same level of support compared to air carriers.”
He noted that large costs were incurred at the height of the pandemic, when airports continued to operate to ensure cargo and humanitarian flights could take off.
To keep facilities running and safe to operate cargo and humanitarian flights during the pandemic for example, airports incurred large costs, he added.
“Overall, airports are also businesses in their own right that have suffered great financial stress during the COVID-19 crisis… In fact, this may be a moment to rethink the economic oversight of airport charges to something that is more reflective of market conditions allowing for risk to be shared across airlines and airports.”
Recovering revenue?
IATA said that the charges collected by airports and ANSPs take an increasing percentage of the price that passengers pay for their air tickets. It said charges have been increased to cover revenues lost in 2020/2021.
“They want to do this to recover the revenue and profits they missed when airlines were unable to fly during the pandemic,” IATA said in a statement.
In 2022 alone, charges are expected to increase by 40 percent on average. But some aviation hubs could impose higher increases, such as Heathrow Airport, which is pushing to increase charges by more than 90 percent in 2022.
Amsterdam Schipnol Airport is also requesting to increase charges by more than 40 percent over the next three years, while Airports Company South Africa is looking at an increase in charges of 38 percent in 2022.
“Today, I am ringing the alarm. This must stop if the industry is to have a fair opportunity at recovery. Infrastructure shareholders, government or private, have benefited from stable returns pre-crisis. They must now play their part in the recovery,” said Walsh.
(Writing by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria)
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