Olle Sundin, Chairman of Regional Airports’ Forum and Managing Director, Gothenburg Landvetter Airport, Swedavia: “Regional airports are clearly focused on reducing their own costs, but this can be tricky. Many of these costs are driven by regulation, in particular for security and safety, placing a disproportionate burden on smaller airports.”
The meeting saw SMAG officially re-brand itself as ACI EUROPE’s Regional Airports’ Forum in a move that reflects its evolution into a more dynamic and representative network, specifically catering for Europe’s regional airports. The new group is open to all ACI EUROPE’s regular members managing regional airports regardless of their annual traffic, along with national airport associations and World Business Partners.
The Regional Airports’ Forum currently comprises 138 regular members – each of which handles less than 5 million passengers per year – 6 national associations and 10 World Business Partners. It is, indeed, the only forum representing regional airports at European level, with its principal objective being to represent the interests of ACI EUROPE’s regional airport members to the European institutions and national authorities.
Announcing this change, Olivier Jankovec, Director General ACI EUROPE said “With traffic recovery in Europe still quite fragmented, it seems more than appropriate to highlight the important role that Europe’s regional airports play. Naturally, knowledge exchange and promotion of best practice are important in Regional Airports’ Forum, but we are keen to highlight that the economics and the diversity of regional airports are all too often overlooked by our regulators.”
The new aviation market structure that has emerged from the global crisis has considerably increased the competitive pressures on regional airports, which are consequently prioritising reducing ‘visiting costs’ – the overall costs of using the airport for airlines – as a vital means to retain or increase air services.
“Regional airports are clearly focused on reducing their own costs, but this can be tricky. Many of these costs are driven by regulation, in particular for security and safety, placing a disproportionate burden on smaller airports. Moreover, visiting costs for airlines also relate to associated airport activities, in particular Air Traffic Control, over which we have no control and the costs keep going up,” added Olle Sundin, Chairman of Regional Airports’ Forum and Managing Director, Gothenburg Landvetter Airport, Swedavia. “Ultimately, this situation is hurting the connectivity of many regions across Europe. Through the Regional Airports’ Forum, we will seek a more tailor-made regulatory and operational framework that puts regional airports in a condition to boost their competitiveness.”
Above all, the rebranded Regional Airports’ Forum will focus on increasing visibility of the contribution regional airports make to European economies, in addition to addressing their specific challenges.
The 4th Annual ACI EUROPE Regional Airports’ conference will take place in Cagliari, Sardinia from 9 to 11 May 2011.
