Airport fee increases ‘punishing passengers for not flying’

Willie Walsh said plans to hike fees were, in effect, penalising consumers for their inability to fly during the pandemic.

He said more than half the world’s top 100 airports had announced fee increases for 2022 and 2023, “expecting their customers to make up for revenues they did not get during the pandemic”.

He added: “Try that in a competitive business. ‘Dear Valued Customer, we are charging you double for your coffee today because you could not buy one yesterday.’ Who would accept that?”

Walsh said Heathrow had been allowed to increase charges by 50% and was asking for more, while Schiphol confirmed a 37% hike for 2022-24. “Not to be outdone, Dublin joined the group, wanting an 80% hike over 2023-2026.”

He said too many airports “are addicted to a ‘spend big and cream it off the customer’ mentality”, with opposition to strong independent economic regulation demonstrating “that they know it’s wrong”.  

He praised Spain as a rare regulatory success story, where the government rejected airport operator Aena’s request to recover $2.4 billion of pandemic losses. “We need other governments to show similar backbone,” he said.

Walsh was speaking at the Iata AGM in Doha, where he also addressed the issue of sustainability. He predicted the industry would hit its 2050 net zero target, with a 65% reduction using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and 19% from offsets. Another 13% reduction would come from electronic propulsion and the remaining 3% from other efficiencies.

Airlines had committed $17 billion in forward purchase SAF agreements, he said, adding: “And, irrespective of price, airlines have used every drop of SAF that was available in 2021. And it will be the same for this year. We’d buy more if we could.”

He blasted the “near complete failure” of EU member states to implement the Single European Sky (SES). 

“SES could eliminate up to 10% of Europe’s air transport emissions with technology that exists today. It’s beyond embarrassing, it is a scandal for Europe that it has failed to deliver,” he said.