The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has formed the preliminary view to not object to a proposal from Airservices Australia to temporarily increase the prices of its aviation rescue and fire fighting services, ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said today.
"The ACCC is now seeking views from interested parties on Airservices Australia's proposal", Mr Samuel said.
Airservices Australia is the monopoly provider of fire fighting and rescue services at Australian airports and is required under the Trade Practices Act 1974 to notify the ACCC of proposed price increases.
"Airservices' proposal, which increases the threshold under which airlines and other air operators are subject to fire fighting charges, addresses some of the ACCC's concerns with the current weight-based system of charges.
"However, it does not appear to address the ACCC's concerns about the efficiency of the structure of charges in the long term".
Mr Samuel said that Airservices Australia needed to undertake a comprehensive review of the structure of charging before introducing long-term prices.
"Allowing this temporary price increase will enable Airservices to recover a larger amount of the costs of providing aviation rescue and fire fighting services while it conducts this comprehensive review", Mr Samuel said.
The ACCC has based its preliminary view on information provided by Airservices Australia and the views of interested parties that made submissions to Airservices' consultation process. It is now seeking comments on its preliminary view.
A copy of the ACCC's preliminary view and Airservices Australia's draft price notification is available on the ACCC's website.