Tourism: Airport charges - new rules could mean cheaper flights

Airport charges are one of the hidden costs of flying and usually they are passed on from airlines to passengers. Wednesday evening sees MEPs debate whether to support a proposed directive which aims to set common rules for how charges are calculated. It could affect Europe's biggest airports and help introduce more competition between them.
Its supporters also believe it could lead to fairer and clearer ticket pricing. This debate - due to be held in Strasbourg - can be seen live on Wednesday evening from 9pm.

At present airport charges are invariably passed on to passengers. The final price for flyers can include charges to cover air passenger duty, local airport taxes, passenger service charges, fuel costs and security and insurance costs.

MEPs on the all-party Transport Committee have already indicated their backing for the directive.

The drafted report indicates that the committee would like the directive applied to the largest airports in each country and those who have over 5 million passengers a year. At present this would affect 69 airports including ones such as Amsterdam and Palma de Mallorca.

MEPs would also like to see independent bodies set up to adjudicate disputes between airports over fees.

"Passengers will be protected from exorbitant charges"

The man who drafted the report is German Socialist Ulrich Stockmann. He told us that: "Passengers will be protected from exorbitant charges for landing and takeoff ... charges can also be differentiated according to environmental criteria such as aircraft noise which will also produce benefits for the citizen."

At the moment, large airports are able to dictate to individual airlines the charges they have to pay for the use of the airport infrastructure. At present airlines do not have a real choice to move away from the big airports.

Charges for disabled excluded

Such charges need not necessarily bear a direct relation to the quality of the services provided. In practice, airlines are forced to pay whatever charges the airport has determined and will usually pass these costs on to the passenger.

Charges for disabled and other people who have mobility problems will be excluded from the scope of the directive.

The report also calls for incentives for new routes to outlying regions of Europe. The hope is that this will help them access both people and trade.

Europe's Transport Ministers meeting in the Council have already made a commitment to accept a further series of parliamentary amendments if tabled at this the second reading.

Source: European Parliament

Published by Mike Hitchen, Mike Hitchen Consulting
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