Airports and airlines need to focus on partnership and ensuring that capacity matches with the continent’s demand, says ACI EUROPE’s director general, Olivier Jankovec.
What tops European airports’ list of concerns when it comes to network development? We are concerned about the sustainability of the recovery and whether airlines will continue to add capacity into the market. Like many businesses, we are also mindful of the potential impact of rising oil prices. In the medium term, the ongoing consolidation of the airline industry is negatively affecting the airline network and shifting the airport-airline relationship. Smaller airports/ secondary hubs will be particularly sensitive to these changes. Naturally, when it comes to what an airport can do to boost network development, competitive airport charges are a must. Airports of all sizes are keenly aware that the old days – when an airport waited for airlines to come and see them – are well and truly in the past.
Maintaining low airport charges while delivering a quality service means relying on non-aeronautical revenues more, such as airport retail. Low-cost carriers introducing a one bag rule doesn’t help matters and actively hurts our ability to keep our airport charges low – so they are actually biting the hand that feeds them.
Passenger and cargo traffic is bouncing back in Europe – are the continent’s airports adequately placed to meet current and future demand?
For the moment, yes, but in the long term, no. Between 2008 and 2013, Europe’s airports will invest about €50 billion in infrastructure. Moreover, the current expansion outlook for the medium to long term is for an overall 40% increase in airport capacity in Europe. However, EUROCONTROL has just released its Long Term Forecast and it estimates that, by 2030, air traffic in Europe will nearly double and that a resulting airport capacity crunch will mean that about 10% of flights will be unaccommodated. This translates into roughly 280 million passengers being unable to fly.
Do you anticipate we will be seeing more labour disputes at Europe’s airline and air traffic control in 2011? I hope not. The past two years have been very testing for everyone in aviation. During the global crisis some airlines reduced staff and increased efficiency, while others simply cut capacity. In
the long-term the ones that didn’t make the hard choices then will still have difficult decisions to make if they are to enjoy the same efficiencies, which may well result in more industrial action. As for air traffic control, in some countries there is still a lot of resistance to the changes that the Single European Sky is bringing about, so we may also see industrial action from that side in the coming months.
What do you make of a situation at London Heathrow where some airlines are disputing fees over the disrupted snow period? It’s not helpful. These kinds of disputes actively hurt the airport-airline relationship and
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Factfile
ORGANISATION: ACI EUROPE Headquarters: Brussels, Belgium Website:
www.aci-europe.org year founded: I991
Members: Nearly 400 members in 46 European countries
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