Airports Council International (ACI) Europe said the region’s
airports are in urgent need of financial relief from the EU, saying €30 billion
worth of aid extended to airlines is “not flowing down to airports and other
suppliers”.
According to the organisation, many airlines are putting
pressure on airports to further rebate or waive their charges even as passenger
demand starts to recover. It also claimed carriers in receipt of large state-backed
bailouts have not been paying airports for the use of their facilities.
ACI Europe’s data shows passenger traffic across the
continent is returning slower than anticipated, with airports having lost almost
900 million passengers so far this year. While airports lost all revenue as a
result, they have sustained significant costs to accommodate emergency flights
and ensure essential cargo flights could operate throughout the pandemic,
meaning they are continually burning cash reserves or turning to loans,
according to ACI Europe.
Jost Lammers, president of ACI Europe, warned: “The economic
and financial situation of airports is disastrous, and the recovery is
proceeding at a much slower pace than we had hoped for. Financial aid to
airlines does not address and solve airports’ own financial issues and ongoing
business continuity risk in the recovery. Such one-sided financial aid to
airlines creates massive imbalances in the Single Aviation Market and threatens
its integrity. It will end up damaging air connectivity and consumer interest.”
Addressing the Aviation Summit last week, the council called
on EU transport ministers and the European Commission to include specific
measures for airports in the EU Recovery Plan, including: financial
compensation for the costs involved in remaining open during lockdowns and for
the additional costs of sanitary measures; extension of temporary unemployment
support schemes for airport staff to limit layoffs; “strict and enforceable”
conditions on any extension to the current airport slot rule waiver scheme reportedly being considered to ensure unused slots can be reallocated to other airlines;
requiring airlines in receipt of state aid to pay airport charges; and allowing
arrival duty free sales at EU airports to support the restoration of
revenue-generating activities.
It is also calling on individual state governments to better
coordinate travel restrictions, as well as for the EU to set an international
standard for a passenger Covid-19 testing scheme.