London Heathrow airport will have to wait until the middle of October to find out how much it can charge per passenger over the next few years.
In March, the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority set out its final decision for Heathrow’s passenger charges up to the end of 2026, which would see prices capped at £31.57 per passenger this year. They would then fall to £25.43 next year and stay “broadly flat” in 2025 and 2026.
But these price caps sparked a wave of appeals to the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) from Heathrow itself, which argues the prices are being set too low by the regulator, and three airlines – British Airways, Delta and Virgin Atlantic – who want the cap to be lowered further to around £20 per passenger by the CAA.
The CMA had been due to make a decision on the passenger charges in August, but this deadline has now been pushed back by eight weeks to 17 October. The CAA is also being given more time to respond to the various appeals with its deadline extended to 31 May.
Both Heathrow and the airlines are arguing that there were mistakes made in the way the CAA calculated its planned charges at the airport. The CMA has appointed a group of three panel members to determine the appeal.