Assessing the airport ecosystem : which way forward?

Aviation is crucial for Europe’s mobility, connectivity and competitiveness. With over 900 million air passengers travelling to, from and within the European Union each year, Europe makes up a third of the global aviation market. Liberalisation of the internal aviation market has been a major EU success enabling significant growth in the sector and delivering benefits to consumers. It has supported EU competitiveness globally. At the same time, there have also been unintended environmental impacts in terms of CO2 emissions, pollution and noise. The Commission’s Smart and Sustainable Mobility Strategy has the aim of developing a resilient, competitive and sustainable transport sector that can deliver affordable connectivity to all EU regions. This is against the background of an aviation market that has been substantially changing in recent years with more pressing and new challenges, such as increasing capacity constraints, evolving market power, consolidation of the air services sector and the strategic aims of enhancing sustainability, digitalisation and resilience. Efficient airport capacity management is a key component of a well-functioning aviation market. Being able to access competitively priced, sustainable and quality capacity is a necessary ingredient of a well-functioning aviation market that can deliver affordable connectivity to consumers. The access, pricing and quality of airport capacity have been traditionally governed by EU legislation on the allocation of slots at airports, on ground handling services and on airport charges airlines pay. Given the Union’s strategic aims of decarbonisation, digitalisation, competition and affordable connectivity, it is only logical to take a step back and assess the current regulations affecting airports from a holistic and systemic perspective. Are they functioning well? Can anything be done to make airport capacity management more efficient? Are the rules sufficient to enable investment and effective deployment of green and digital solutions at airports? Is there any scope for a more holistic and systemic approach to airport capacity management? Can greater reliance on communication, digital solutions or AI make airport capacity management more efficient? The 20th Florence Air Forum, co-organised by the Transport Area of the Florence School of Regulation together with the European Commission’s DG MOVE, discussed and holistically evaluated current airport regulations and their interplay with other legislation as far as it affects the efficient functioning of the airport ecosystem.