Heathrow forced to cut landing fees after airline lobbying

Heathrow airport will be forced to cut its landing fees after demand for flying recovered from the pandemic faster than expected and airlines successfully lobbied against a significant increase in charges. The UK aviation regulator on Wednesday said landing fees at the UK hub airport should fall from the current GBP31.57 per passenger to GBP25.43 from next year. Heathrow and airlines, including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, had engaged in a years-long row over whether the airport should be allowed to increase its fees following the pandemic and the fall in traveller numbers. The charges are typically passed straight on to passengers through ticket prices. Heathrow pushed to be allowed to charge much higher fees — as much as GBP40 per passenger — and warned that investment in the airport was at risk. But in an increasingly acrimonious dispute, airlines accused the airport of price gouging and deliberately underestimating the speed of the recovery in its passenger forecasts in order to win a better settlement on prices from the regulator. Senior industry executives warned the dispute would rumble on, with Heathrow and the airlines both given six weeks to appeal to the Competition and Markets Authority, the competition watchdog. Both Heathrow and British Airways owner, International Airlines Group, said they were considering their options, with neither side left satisfied. The airport said the Civil Aviation Authority had cut charges to their lowest levels in real terms in a decade, and that instead it should be “incentivising investment to rebuild service”. Luis Gallego, CE of IAG, said high charges “risked undermining [the UK’s] competitiveness” and that the regulator should have cut them further.<br/>