AIRPORT SERVICES AND AIRPORT CHARGING SYSTEMS - A CRITICAL-REVIEW OF THE EU COMMON FRAMEWORK

This paper reviews proposals contained in the Commission of the Europe an Communities (CEC) Consultation Paper of 1995 and Draft Directive of 1997 on Airport Charges. Economic and practical problems associated w ith the CEC proposals are highlighted. The main conclusions are that t he CEC proposals will be difficult to enforce because they are vague, implementation is left to the individual member states, and because th ey allow for a variety of approaches to charging systems which can inc lude substantial cross-subsidisation across aeronautical and non-aeron autical uses at one or more airports. The fact that the Commission wil l not have significant powers of enforcement further reduces the impac t which the proposals can have. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rig hts reserved.