Australia: Airservices to undertake 'unprecedented' freeze of charges to airlines

Airservices Australia has abandoned a 5-year pricing proposal it put to airlines last year and will instead freeze its fees until July 2017 amid a cost-cutting drive by new CE Jason Harfield. "It is unprecedented in the sense we are holding off putting a new pricing proposal making sure we are as efficient as we possibly can," he said. The freeze in fees will benefit all domestic and international airlines, which are reliant on govt-owned Airservices for air traffic control and airport firefighting services. Airservices collected A$1.01b of revenue in financial year 2015. The current pricing agreement expires June 30. In August, Airservices had proposed a 5.3% rise in the first year of the 5-year deal, with a weighted average of 3.3% over the life of the agreement. <br/>