Routes and Airports Channel

Airports seek short-term relief from European financial crisis

By Sandra Arnoult
ATW's Airports Today, April, 2009, p.1

European airports, stung by falling passenger and freight traffic, are seeking relief from the European Commission to ensure their competitive and financial viability, according to Airports Council International Europe. The measures ACI has proposed are in line with the European Economic Recovery Plan adopted by the EC in November 2008 and do not ask for "massive bailouts" but seek a "reconsideration" of existing policies and regulations.

"Airports are catalysts for job creation," said ACI Europe DG Olivier Jankovec. "Not only do they contribute to the economies of the region and communities they serve, they actually define them. This means we can do a great deal for economic recovery--but for that to happen, they now need to be given the freedom to develop."

The paper, "Empower Europe's Airports to Boost Economic Recovery," issued in mid-March, outlines a plan that ACI Europe says would enable airports to weather the economic downturn and play a proactive role in the economic recovery. In summary, the organization is asking government officials for the following considerations that would afford short-term relief:

European airports are seeing a steady erosion of revenue along with a reduction in frequencies and the suspension of routes. Between 2002 and 2007 traffic grew by some 40%, but in 2008 they experienced declines of about 7.7% in passenger traffic and a whopping 21.4% in freight. This January, passenger traffic decreased 10.7% and freight was down 23.6%.

A spokesperson for ACI Europe told ATW's Airports Today that the report is not a long-term strategy but rather a short-term response with a sense of "urgency" to the current crisis. "When we were putting it together, traffic in Europe was falling to levels we haven't seen in ages," the spokesperson said.

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