Press release 11 March 2008 Civil Aviation Authority (CAA):The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is today publishing its decisions for price controls for Heathrow and Gatwick airports for the five years from 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2013. The CAA’s package of price caps and incentives will enable and encourage BAA to deliver genuine service quality improvements and to invest to raise the level of facilities and service that can be delivered to passengers and airlines. The outcome for passengers should be decently modern airports and consistently high service standards.The CAA has set the following maximum charges:Heathrow£12.80 per passenger in 2008/09, an increase of £2.44 on a like-for-like basis, representing a 23.5 per cent increase in real terms from the current (2007/08) price cap, with allowed charges subsequently increasing in each of the following four years by no more than retail price index (RPI) inflation plus 7.5 per cent each year.Gatwick£6.79 per passenger in 2008/09, an increase of £1.18 on a like-for-like basis, representing a 21.0 per cent increase in real terms from the current (2007/08) price cap, with allowed charges subsequently increasing in each of the following four years by no more than RPI inflation plus 2.0 per cent.At both airports, the difference from the CAA’s November proposals is in the first year increase, which is £0.83 per passenger or 7 percentage points greater at Heathrow and £0.72 per passenger or 12 percentage points greater at Gatwick.
Press release 11 March 2008 British Airways The Civil Aviation Authority's decision to allow BAA to ramp up airport charges significantly demonstrates conclusively that the airport regulation system has failed, to the detriment of customers, says British Airways.The CAA has today announced that Heathrow's charges over five years from April 1, 2008 will rise by 23.5 per cent above inflation in year one and by 7.5 per cent above inflation each year between 2009 and 2013. BAA will be allowed a cost of capital of 6.2 per cent.Paul Ellis, British Airways' general manager airport policy and infrastructure, said: "When BAA's new owners, Ferrovial, bought them, the CAA said they would not be influenced by Ferrovial's high debt levels. In practice, they have ignored their own policy and caved in to intense pressure from BAA by setting excessive price increases. Heathrow passengers will pay, on average, 17 per cent more than the Competition Commission recommended in September 2007."The airline believes urgent changes must be made to current UK airport regulation and has made its views known to the Competition Commission and the Pilling Review on the future of the CAA.
The Civil Aviation Authority's decision to allow BAA to ramp up airport charges significantly demonstrates conclusively that the airport regulation system has failed, to the detriment of customers, says British Airways.The CAA has today announced that Heathrow's charges over five years from April 1, 2008 will rise by 23.5 per cent above inflation in year one and by 7.5 per cent above inflation each year between 2009 and 2013. BAA will be allowed a cost of capital of 6.2 per cent.Paul Ellis, British Airways' general manager airport policy and infrastructure, said: "When BAA's new owners, Ferrovial, bought them, the CAA said they would not be influenced by Ferrovial's high debt levels. In practice, they have ignored their own policy and caved in to intense pressure from BAA by setting excessive price increases. Heathrow passengers will pay, on average, 17 per cent more than the Competition Commission recommended in September 2007."The airline believes urgent changes must be made to current UK airport regulation and has made its views known to the Competition Commission and the Pilling Review on the future of the CAA.