IATA heightened its vocal attack on infrastructure charges at its Annual General Meeting (AGM), bringing fire to bear on privatised airports even as new pricing and fee models emerge.
"As airlines struggle, governments allow monopoly service providers to count their money," said IATA director general Giovanni Bisignani in his keynote state of the industry address.
Describing airport and air traffic service provider operating margins as "spectacular", he cited Argentina, Japan and Mexico as having some of the biggest offending airports. London Heathrow, Toronto and Zurich also drew criticism. Bisignani said that some Eurocontrol states - particularly Germany - also abuse their monopoly positions with annual increases in air traffic control charges of over 20%. "What are the regulators doing to stop these abusive practices?" he asked.
The real issue remains economic and regulatory oversight, he said, because privatisation of airports does not help. "They just become unregulated monopolies - it is a licence to print money," charged Bisignani, to applause from the audience. He called BAA "a private monopoly", citing a planned 6.5% Heathrow landing fee increase "when the focus of the entire industry is on cost reduction".
KLM president Leo van Wijk said that while a range of charging and pricing options will be needed to cover different- sized airports, a fundamental question is obtaining transparent financial figures from airports. He said the only way KLM could extract full data from Amsterdam Schiphol was to block the airport's privatisation process using political muscle. "This is not a true partnership," he said.
Federico Bloch, president of TACA, described the airport privatisation model in Latin America as "horrible", characterised by rapidly rising charges. He also highlighted the "original sin" of privatisation deals that guarantee large annual payments to the central government. However, carriers have begun having some success in getting their message across in the region, he said. "At least we are able to stop the tide," said Bloch, noting that privatisation proposals in Panama and Uruguay have been put off.
Bloch suggested an alternative airport-charging model where boarding passengers pay a charge directly. "There is no reason why airports should charge airlines anything," he said.
Noting that airline chief executives were focusing on this issue for the first time, Airports Council International director general Robert Aaronson said both sides "need to make some serious joint efforts to find some solutions". He added that airport charges had accounted for about 4% of total airline operating costs over the last 25 years.
DAVID FIELD & MARK PILLING WASHINGTON
Source: Airline Business
