news conference report AOA Conference 2010 October 25-26 ■ London Hilton Metropole
Members of the Airport Operators Association gathered in London this week to discuss the state of the industry and hear from transport secretary Philip Hammond. Chris Gray reports
CAA fuels airport fees row
AIRLINES COULD be forced to display “develop- ment charges” imposed by airports on their websites, under plans being considered by the CAA.
CAA chief executive Andrew Haines said the organisation was taking legal advice about what it could do to force airlines to display the charge under European laws about transparent pricing. The charges have been introduced by regional
airports including Durham, Norwich, Blackpool and Newquay as a way of making up for a decline in revenues.
Haines said the CAA supported the airports’ right to impose the charges but it was important the consumer was told about the fee before they arrived at the airport. The move will put the CAA on a collision
course with airlines who will not want their headline prices to be increased because of more charges imposed by airports.
Haines accepted that airlines would not want AIRPORT QUEUES. Fast-track security for frequent flyers?
FREQUENT FLYERS should be given a separate security channel to ordinary travellers, the chair- man of British Airways has proposed. Martin Broughton said the key to cut- ting queues at the UK’s airports was to separate “occasional flyers” from cus- tomers who travelled regularly. He suggested the system could work
with frequent flyers paying for separate security clearance and not having to stand in line with travellers who might present more of a risk. Broughton denied suggestions by con-
ference moderator John Humphrys that the proposal would lead to discrimina- tion, with columns of “middle class white
12 29.10.2010
men with briefcases” sailing past. “As long as there are frequent flyers who are willing to pay a fee there is no discrim- ination as it does not matter if you are male, female, Asian or British,” said Broughton. Earlier, he accused the government of sacrificing Britain’s national interest for its own political ends by scrapping plans to build a third runway at Heathrow. He said the importance of not alien-
Martin Broughton
ating voters in constituencies around Heathrow overcame economic argu- ments when the government made its decision. Broughton also criticised many security measures as “redundant”.
to do anything that made them look less attrac- tive than their competitors. But he said: “We do not think it is in con-
sumers’ interests for an airport to close down if there is another way, provided the consumer is given the information before they make the choice to purchase the flight,” he said. “We are taking legal advice about requiring airlines to publish the charge on their websites.” A Ryanair spokesman told TTGthat the airline had pulled out of Blackpool when a charge was imposed, and had warned Doncaster, which is considering a charge, that it would leave if the fee was imposed. He said it was illogical for airlines to have to warn consumers about fees imposed by airports and added: “Where does it stop? If Gatwick Ex- press increases its prices do we have to display that on our website? “At some point passengers have to be respon- sible for doing research before they travel.”
Philip Hammond AVIATION PLANS.
Hammond under fire for policy delay
A NEW national policy for avia- tion will not be in place for at least two years, transport secre- tary Philip Hammond admitted. Hammond came under fire at the Airport Operators Associa- tion conference for ripping up the previous government’s
aviation policy before the coalition had anything to replace it with.
He accepted that the decision to scrap a third
runway at Heathrow and abandon the 2003 white paper on aviation had been made without a full alternative policy in place. Hammond said Department for Transport
officials would issue a “scoping document” early next year, followed by a full public consultation in early 2012 and then a “fully framed” plan. He said the policy was likely to see the growth
of regional airports but did not spell out how. Airline bosses said the delay left a “huge pol-
icy vacuum” for UK aviation. Mike Carrivick, chief executive of Bar UK, said “ Right now there is no policy that sets out government objectives.”
GATWICK REVAMP. Security wins over retail
GATWICK AIRPORT is scrapping a large area of retail space to make way for new security lines to improve customers’ experience, chief executive Stewart Wingate told the conference. The airport’s previous owners BAA were criti- cised for putting retail profits over customers’ experiences, but Wingate said the new owners, Global Infrastructure Partners, had a different approach. A £45 million project will add 19 new security lanes in the south terminal by summer next year. “It will involve removing a significant area of
retail space and £5 million off our revenue stream,” said Wingate. He added that the project was part of the air- port’s £1 billion capital investment programme.
ttglive.com
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