The Association of European Airlines (AEA) reports that Ireland's air navigation provider will raise rates to airlines using its airspace by 17 percent in 2010.
AEA Secretary General Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus said, “Air navigation providers, along with some other elements in the air transport value chain, have the ability to recover lost revenues and lost profits by jacking up their prices, because they are monopolies, not governed by the discipline that a competitive market imposes. A cost-recovery pricing regime offers no incentive to cut costs or improve efficiency”.
Schulte-Strathaus noted that EU Transport Commissioner Antonio Tajani has asked EU member states not to increase navigation and airport charges during the current economic slump. "What the Irish government has failed to see is the implication of penalizing aviation, and thus jeopardizing employment, by the twin burdens of a heavily taxed customer base and an overpriced and under-productive infrastructure," he added.
Earlier this year, the AEA made a similar complaint to the EU Commission following a move by Poland to raise airport and air navigation charges to recover lost income as a result of the recession.