Airports association ACI Europe has called for the suspension of national aviation taxes across Europe to help protect regional airports from the impact of the Iran war.
ACI Europe said that regional airports, which have annual traffic of less than one million passengers, were “particularly vulnerable” to rising fuel prices, as airlines were more likely to cut routes to these airports than at larger hubs.
The association said the “dramatic increase” in jet fuel prices in Europe, which reached $1,800 per tonne earlier this month, was resulting in higher ticket prices and “tight capacity” management by airlines.
“Regional airports are the most exposed to the fallout of these adjustments, as demand on their routes is typically much more price-sensitive and price-elastic — and thus less profitable for airlines,” added ACI Europe in a statement released during its Regional Airports Conference & Exhibition in Turin this week.
European carriers have already moved to cut capacity from their summer schedules as the crisis in the Middle East drags on. Lufthansa Group has announced that it is cutting 20,000 flights this summer and closing its short-haul CityLine subsidiary, while KLM is also trimming its schedule during May.
Olivier Jankovec, director general of ACI Europe, said: “The current levels of jet fuels prices and the prospect of a new cost-of-living crisis mean that many regional airports across our continent are likely to face both a supply and demand shock. For them, this is nothing short of an existential threat.”
ACI Europe’s figures show that smaller regional airports have yet to fully recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, with their traffic around one-third lower on average than in 2019, while larger airports have seen passenger numbers rise by 16 per cent over the same timeframe.
To counter these challenges, ACI Europe is calling for the suspension of national aviation taxes to “provide relief for the aviation and tourism sectors”, as well as for the EU to increase the threshold for the amount of operating aid permitted for regional airports as they face higher regulatory costs and more frequent traffic “shocks”.
The association also repeated its call for the EU to allow the “full suspension” of the Entry-Exit System (EES) during the entire summer 2026 season to stop “excessive and unmanageable” waiting times at border control.
In a separate development, ACI Europe has welcomed the European Commission’s new AccelerateEU plan to deal with the impact of the energy crisis caused by the Middle East conflict after previously raising concerns about jet fuel shortages in Europe.
AccelerateEU features several measures aimed at safeguarding the supply of jet fuel to European airports. These include creating an EU Fuel Observatory to monitor the supply and available stocks of jet fuel, and increased co-ordination between EU members, fuel suppliers, airlines and airports to optimise supply distribution around the continent.
“No airport in Europe is currently facing jet fuel shortages, and flight operations are proceeding normally,” said Jankovec.
“But the plan is the adequate strategy and response to mitigate potential jet fuel shortage risks, given how uncertain the situation remains over the resumption of the safe and stable passage through the Strait of Hormuz.”