The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has decided to not object to a proposal by Airservices Australia to increase prices for its monopoly services, from 1 July 2014. Airservices Australia provides air traffic control and aviation fire-fighting and rescue services to airports and airlines.
The ACCC assesses notifications of proposed price increases by Airservices Australia. The ACCC undertook a detailed assessment of Air Services proposed price path for the five year period from 2011-2016 in 2011 and decided then to not object to the proposed prices.
These proposed charges are consistent with those approved by the ACCC in 2011 as part of that five year price plan. The ACCC consulted on the current proposed price increases with Airservices’ stakeholders, including airlines and aviation representative bodies.
In summary:
- Terminal navigation (TN) charges will increase at 21 airports by between 0.2 per cent and 3.6 per cent, and will fall at six airports by between 0.9 and 5.2 per cent.
- Charges for aviation rescue and fire-fighting (ARFF) services will increase at 22 airports by between 1.8 per cent and 10.2 per cent, and will fall at two airports by between 1.0 per cent and 10.0 per cent. These price changes reflect the need to transition ARFF services towards full cost recovery.
- Charges for en route navigation services will fall by an average of 0.1 per cent.
- Out-of-hours charges for TN and ARFF services will also increase.
In its 2011 decision, the ACCC noted the importance of commitments made by Airservices in terms of its consultation with stakeholders and its internal efficiency drivers. In general, stakeholders considered that Airservices continues to make progress on its commitments in its five-year pricing agreement.
“Since the ACCC approved the long-term pricing proposal in 2011, Airservices has improved consultation with industry. However, Airservices should continue to explore ways of refining its existing key performance indicators and developing a more sophisticated form of cost benchmarking,” ACCC Commissioner Cristina Cifuentes said.
Airservices intends to implement its proposed prices on 1 July 2014.
The ACCC’s decision is available at: Airservices Australia 2014.