UK: Regulator blocks Heathrow’s ‘disproportionate’ bid to recoup Covid losses

Regulators have blocked a “disproportionate” push by Heathrow’s owners to claw back £2.6bn of pandemic losses, and instead said the airport can recoup around a tenth of that figure through raising its landing fees. The Civil Aviation Authority said the UK’s busiest airport can raise GBP300m by increasing its landing fees by the equivalent of about 30p per passenger from 2022 to help offset a collapse in revenue since the start of the pandemic. The 2021 landing fee is GBP21.08. The charges, already some of the highest in the world, are typically passed straight to consumers through higher ticket prices. Both the airport and airlines, who have been in a protracted dispute over landing fees, were disappointed by the ruling. Heathrow lost GBP2b last year as passenger numbers fell to their lowest level since the 1970s. The airport was overtaken by Paris’s Charles de Gaulle as Europe’s busiest as travel restrictions ripped through the aviation industry. “The decision we have announced today will incentivise and allow Heathrow to maintain investment, service quality and be proactive in supporting any potential surge in consumer demand later this year,” said Paul Smith, a CAA director.  Heathrow’s owners had sought permission to claw back GBP2.6b, a proposal the regulator said was “disproportionate and not in the interests of consumers”.<br/>